First, I must issue my most sincere apologies to Ballyrag on two accounts. When I received the disc, I left it in my desk for about a week, too lazy to slide it into a CD player. I was most pleasantly surprised at what I heard, but I'll get into that in a second. I also must apologize for losing the band's e-mail address. Sorry about my incompetence, guys.

I believe the best way to sum up this album is by using a quote from track two, "you are candy for my ears." That's what this whole album is: a brilliant, fun rock album. From start to finish, this album is stocked with energetic guitars, groovy bass, catchy drums, and brilliant vocals. As soon as the listener is hit with the up-front vocal intro of "Jack Horner," we know that we're in for one great ride.

One of the things that I really appreciate about this album is its extremely broad range. Whereas most bands will play one style of music, and toss the occasional ballad onto a record to try to sound diverse, Ballyrag actually have each one of their songs sounding completely fresh and new. It's a tactic that works. There's the full-out rocking "Perfectly In My Way," the slower, ballad-esque "Edge Of The World" (complete with a penny whistle (?), which scores a ton of cool points in my book), the slick, fast-paced "Sara," and several other songs that I simply can't classify. Also, the interesting interludes, like the Middle-Eastern sounding chants on "Sweet Things" and the intro on "Texas" make this album all the better.

The only song I can say that isn't quite up to snuff with the rest is the last track, "Dirty." For some reason, it just doesn't flow that well with me, though I'm sure that it will grow on me the more that I listen to this record.

Usually when I'm playing a rock album, I'll listen to the whole thing, and comment with something like "That was good…now I'd better start spinning the Kreator before I turn into a wuss." With this album however, as soon as it was done, I hit the replay button, so I could fully take in what I had just heard. What followed was about a week of playing Where the Ocean Meets The 10 non-stop.

I have to congratulate Ballyrag, they've restored my dwindling faith in post-1992 American rock music. I urge everyone to give this band and this album a listen, they're most certainly worth your time.

Rating: TBD

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