The Bottom Line: There are worse things to blow a buck or two on, but with that said CFP isn't worth the time it takes to open the shrink wrap on the disc.
lambchops's Full Review: Progress * by Clowns For Progress
CFP = Clowns For Progress
An alt-punk-pop trio hailing from New York City, Clowns For Progress isn’t your average band. Sure, they began just as any other novelty act does…they dressed up as clowns before taking the stage and yelped upbeat laments about how rebellious they were. But that shtick didn’t last past the first act. When the apparently renamed CFP returned in 1998 with their sophomore effort Progress, they’d made a few conscious changes.
Gone was the gimmicky clown makeup. The trio seemed to realize that their sound may just be worthy even without the stupid tricks. And so Deano Jones (bass, vocals), Brad Goop (guitar), and Johnny T. (drums) gave it their all…gave the world Progress. Of course most people outside of a certain limited crowd in NYC haven’t heard of the band, so obviously something somewhere went very wrong. What’s even worse is that my life isn’t any better or worse for having heard most of what is on their sophomore Last Beat release.
Much of what is contained on Progress is on the surface very entertaining, and in the right era the album could have easily been appealing to a decently sized crowd. But they came about and released this disc toward the end of the modest ska-punk-pop revival and Warped Tour movement of the mid 1990’s (including bands like Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Rancid, Goldfinger, and Reel Big Fish among others). Their sound really isn’t anything new…CFP leaves me with a feeling that I’ve been there and done that before. This is likely the reason why the trio never hit it big despite exhaustive tours with contemporary acts.
Progress is a long (at least in terms of punk rock), rather haphazardly assembled album and shoddily produced. There are a few good points to the disc…it is hard to deny the fact that the band is indeed talented. They just seem directionless, as though they have a clue as to what they want to do but have no freakin’ clue how to best get from point a. to point b. That’s not to say that everything about CFP is bad. On the contrary, it is an overall enjoyable through not at all fulfilling experience in listening to Progress. In 1998 it was certainly more of a revolutionary type album, but today it is too similar to watered-down punk like Blink 182, Sum 41, and about a trillion other acts to be anything more than forgettable.
There is something to be said for a band that sets out to make fun music. CFP makes no apparent attempt to prove their intelligence or enlighten audiences on any level. Kicking off with Sammy Says, the album remains at about the same level of hyper-intensity throughout the fourteen tracks that follow. Joyride and Kiss Me on the Moon are both decent enough songs, though in all they do blend together.
Inundated Man is quite possibly the best offering on Progress. While at the core, the song is punk it takes the genre to the limits of rock n’ roll and in the end comes off has something nearing new and different. Few other songs on this disc do anything close to that. However 3am, Goin’ Home, and Cherry Cherry do come close.
Speaking of Cherry Cherry, the song features Dicky Barrett of Mighty Mighty Bosstones fame on chorus. Not just that, the song is also strangely enough a cover of the Neil Diamond classic. It is nearly as good as the aforementioned Inundated Man, but for a very different reason. Cherry Cherry is among the few in that it is a cover track that works well. CFP makes it their own, and suddenly the pop song feels right infused with punk rock.
But most of Progress is bland. I wanted to like the album, I really did. But the fact remains that CFP have done nothing new. Their sound is old, and their musical and creative talent has been artificially squelched. While the album isn’t great, it’s not horrible. It’s the worst kind of music…wholly mediocre, absolutely forgettable rubbish. It’s impossible to recommend this disc to anybody including punk fans. Sure there are worse things, but because of the horror of those outings they are negatively memorable. CFP on the other hand probably would have been something more if they’d left their makeup on…go figure.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. Sammy Says
02. Joyride
03. Kiss Me on the Moon
04. Inundated Man
05. What I Wanted
06. Streetlights
07. 3 a.m.
08. Inundated Man (Pt. 2)
09. Vegas
10. Insect
11. Goin' Home
12. Planeride
13. Go Ask Charley
14. Cherry Cherry
15. Saturn Rain
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