Consumer Guide Album

The Descendents: Milo Goes to College [New Alliance, 1982]
These fishermen don't kid around about what powers hardcore hyperdrive--not simply an unjust society, but also a battered psyche. When they're feeling bad, any kind of power--money, age, ass-man cool, the possession of a vagina--can set off their anarchic, patricidal, "homo"-baiting, gynephobic rage. But their bad feelings add poignant weight to the doomed vulnerability of the last four songs, which happen to be their hookiest--"Marriage" ("I want you to marry me"), "Hope" ("I'm not giving up"), "Bikeage" ("Don't be afraid, it's not too late") and--chillingly--"Jean Is Dead." And you thought there were no more concept albums. A-