Swingin' Utters - Here, Under Protest.

Pretty sweet return from the Californian punksters Swingin' Utters.
Especially as they seem to have spread their wings a bit, and decided that the harder edged punk pop that they've always been known for is yesterdays news to an extent.
So instead of repackaging, or reheating, past glories here they are dipping their toes into a smorgasbord of punky aural delights.
Bloody good toe tapping stuff it is to.
There's a bit of Bad Religions sound in there, and a nod to the street punk of Rancid.
No surprise in any of that because they all spawn from the same west coast gene pool, but the main surprise is in how they are doing it.
This is shrink wrap fresh and along with the recent Face to Face release it's breathing fresh air into what everyone thought was a stagnant scene limping along on it's last legs.
When I was listening to it I was thinking that if they pulled a stunt like The Alarm did, and released it under a different name with some young emo styled punks playing the part of the band for a video then MTV would be jumping all over it claiming them to be the young guns who would be spearheading a US punk rock revival.
Much of the attraction is down to them delivering their most varied sound to date, and the praise for the added oomph shouldn't be held back.
This is a damn fine album, and the best that they have ever managed to pull out of the hat.
It's as if they have stripped everything down to basics and rebuilt it, trimmed anything superfluous to the sound from it all and bolstered it with a newly found sense of maturity.
In a sense you could say it's the rebirth of the band.