3 out of 5

Label: Jive

Producer: Reel Big Fish, Val Garay

Cheer Up! is sort of the odd man out in the RBF discography, and as such, it has a middling feel, not yet fully committed to acceptance of being bar-rock but not fully willing to give up the dated ska sound.  It took 4 years after the awesome ‘Why Do They Rock…’ to nudge these 16 songs (somewhat uncomfortably) onto disc, and it would take another 3 before their next album, after which their releases – whether compilations or live albums or new material – became a bit more steady.  There was a theoretical plan post ‘Rock’ to do further albums focusing around a certain genre of music, and if memory serves album 3 should’ve been something 80s heavy metalish… which veers its head on the album’s several phoned in tracks, but particularly the tongue-a-bit-too-much-in-cheek ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll is Bitchin’.  But what’s odd is that despite the uncomfortable forced humor of tracks like ‘Ban the Tube Top’ or the wishy-washy maturity of opener ‘Good Thing’ or the title track, when the group loosens up and doesn’t try so hard – or steps outside of expectations to pen a full song (not a riff on a song or a parody), ‘Cheer Up’ has some of the group’s best work, cementing their groove as a group but especially highlighting how powerful Aaron Barrett’s vocals can be when harmonized with his fellows.  In general, the ska is sort of an afterthought (except for the Bradley Nowell penned ‘Boss DJ,’ which is RBF in full fun mode and thus one of the disc’s highlights) and the lean toward muscley distorted riffs hides some nifty horn work and isn’t mixed properly to give it the punch it needs, but then there are surprises like a fairly traditional cover of ‘New York, New York’ – you keep expecting it to break into a laugh but it doesn’t – and the thrilling closer ‘Drunk Again.’  This final track is the emotional standpoint that worked so well on ‘Why Do They Rock So Hard?’, a little bitter, a little angry, a little cynical but resigned to sing about it.  ‘Somebody Loved Me’ is in this vein and ‘A Little Doubt Goes a Long Way’ bounces through several hooks to become another notably honest feeling piece.  ‘Valerie’ dips into trash talk but harkens to a less profanity filled ‘Big Star’ as a mini sardonic and enjoyable masterpiece.

So on the whole, it’s sorta track-by-track, one song by the books jokes and verse-chorus-verse, then the next song something that proves that the band definitely still has that extra glimmer that set them a notch above their ska contemporaries.  Later albums would feel a bit more assured in their sound, but that’s no reason to skip over ‘Cheer Up!…’ even if you might always skip some tracks on the album itself.