Here's to the Mourning

In rock'n'roll, being wholly mediocre can actually be worse than flat-out sucking. So it goes with Unwritten Law. There’s very little wrong with Here’s To The Mourning: These guys are pretty decent at folding chugging guitar riffs into a catchy chorus, and frontman Scott Russo’s gravelly voice punctuates their punk-pop as well as could be asked. But so what? Anyone living outside a cave since 1981 has already heard Bad Religion, Pennywise, and a hundred other bands do this shit just as well. And a maudlin mid-tempo power ballad like "Because Of You" doesn't help matters much. We admit a weakness for the desperate junkie anthem "Save Me," and "Intro" at least suggests a recent introduction to 1997-vintage techno. But even that quickly devolves into the predictable, punk-stuttered "Get Up," in which Russo repeatedly howls, "Get up, get up, get up, 'cause I’m bored." You’re bored, dude? How do you think the rest of us feel?