Fuse

Pennywise | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 9, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Epitaph / Ada
• ASIN: B000A2H85I
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,239 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Knocked Down

2. Yell Out

3. Competition Song

4. Take A Look Around

5. Closer

6. 6th Avenue Nightmare

7. The Kids

8. Fox TV

9. Stand Up

10. Dying

11. Disconnect

12. Premeditated Murder

13. Best I Can

14. 18 Soldiers

15. Lies

Editorial Reviews

Their 8th album, The Fuse just may be the best-sounding Pennywise album yet. The legendary Hermosa Beach foursome have created an amazing, incendiary album from it first snare drum crack to its last molten guitar line.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe IT Doesn't Deserve to Die, January 6, 2006

By 

brian tunick (west new york, nj United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fuse (Audio CD)

I think it was 1987 when Jello Biafra said "punk's not dead, it just deserves to die". That was before the movement suffered the indignities of Blink 182 and their long list of imitators. From the late 90's until recent times, that statement seemed more and more true. Then some good things happened. Pennywise's `From The Ashes', Bad Religion's `The Empire Strikes First', Social Distortion's `Sex, Love and Rock and Roll' to name a few.

Pennywise's newest (and arguably most technically ambitious) is the most recent of those good things. With `Unknown Road', PW came into a sound. They really haven't lost it since, although I would say `Straight Ahead' and `Land of the Free' were a drop on the shaky side (hey, you try losing an original band member to suicide and keeping it together). With `The Fuse', they open with their signature sound (the one we knew from Unknown Road, Full Circle, About Time) and don't let up. The riffs are fast, but well placed. They have guitar solos, but avoid that boring heavy metal trap. The bass guitar does more than mirror the rhythm guitar.

Lyrically, at first listen, I thought `The Fuse' was a bit of a letdown. I did not like `Competition Song' where the lyric "We compete until we die" is rhymed with "We compete until we die". I also felt the short song titles were poorly chosen. It almost felt like they had a musically phenomenal album produced, but rushed the lyrics. However, after a few listens and memorization of the album (somehow I can learn every lyric to an album in three listens, but have no idea what I had for lunch 3 hours ago) I realized the lyrics were actually pretty pointed and very timely. Major standouts are "Fox TV" and "18 Soldiers", but there are no bad songs, and after a few listens, "Competition Song" is pretty catchy.

In a time when you can go to the mall and buy an `Exploited' shirt from a kid with a mohawk and a `Good Charlotte' patch sewn onto her jacket, it's nice to see some (dare I say) respectable punk being produced. At a recent PW concert (they played NYC with Bad Religion, Anti-Flag and Murphy's Law - incredible show) Fletcher asked if anyone remembered Fred Durst. He underscored the point that PW will never be as big as Limp Bizzkut (sp? I don't really care), but that PW has been around over 15 years and have a very large and extremely loyal following.

So buy this CD, listen to it a few times, give it a chance. If you don't like it, I'm sure the local corporate megalith music shop has the new Green Day CD on sale.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars thank God for pennywise, January 9, 2006

By 

Quin Mason "necr0sys" (Plett, South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fuse (Audio CD)

I love this band. A true punk rock band to the bone, their formula has proven more than successful over the years, they have stuck to their roots and haven't changed for anyone or anything. It's bands like pennywise that give us hope and make us realize that worrying about bands like simple plan and good charlotte flushing punk rock down the jon is not worth it. Those bands will come and go, but bands like pennywise, bad religion, strung out etc will never die. Long live Pennywise!

The album reminds me alot of Land Of The Free...all the songs are brilliant, to me Stand Up and Best I can are probably the coolest. The thing I love most about this album is that the lyrics are generally all about hope, not giving up, and a fight worth fighting for. Thank you Pennywise for keeping it real!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real punk amongst imposters, December 28, 2005

By 

Luke "LR" (Tempe, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fuse (Audio CD)

Anyone who has been listening to Pennywise since 1991 will not be disappointed by this darn fine album. When this band first came out they stood out as a clear, fast, great-sounding punk rock phenomena you could play over and over with pleasure. It is nothing short of amazing that this group still has retained their pure punk rock sound.

We have lost many of the greats of punk hardcore: Faction, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Cro-Mags, and Black Flag to name a few. Now the pop-puppet-imposters of MTV are doing their best to smear the punk name...but who cares? Let the young MTV boys and girls who never had a friend with ink, a mohawk, and bloody knuckles buy their My Chemical Romance and Blink 182 compact disks and posters. Thanks to unwavering groups like Pennywise and, of course, Bad Religion, the essence of true punk still lives!