No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED]

Simple Plan

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 19, 2002)
• Original Release Date: March 19, 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Original recording reissued
• Label: Lava
• ASIN: B000060P79
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (805 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,350 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > Punk Revival

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
You can tell a lot about a band by the company it keeps. Simple Plan's close chums include Good Charlotte and Blink 182, giving one a fair hint of the sound the group's debut, though, judging by song titles like "I’m Just a Kid," "The Worst Day Ever," and "God Must Hate Me," it’s clear these Canadian pop-punkers are aiming for a younger demographic still. Ignore the bikini-clad babes that festoon the sleeve--there’s none of Blink 182’s smutty double-entendres here. Frontman Pierre Bouvier writes about skipping school, crashing dad’s car, and lusting after girls that don’t know he exists. "Every day," he sob, "is the worst day ever." The music itself is far from glum. "I’d Do Anything" is a beaming Green Day-style chugger, while "When I’m With You" is a tale of obsession and heartbreak that owes more to the Go-Go's than Rancid. Seasoned punk fans will be put off by the excessive juvenilia, but the new wave should lap this up. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple Plan: A Voice to Relate To, June 16, 2002

By	Sarah Zibanejadrad (Georgia) - See all my reviews

Simple Plan is a wonderful new band straight out of Canada (yes, that's right folks, blame Canada). Powered by teen-angst lyrics, a great melody and 5 good-looking guys, what's not to love? In songs like "I'm Just a Kid", their first single off of their debut album "No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls", the lead singer, Pierre Bouvier, sings about life as a kid whose not apart of the "in-crowd". He makes the listener feel as if "Hey, so maybe I'm not the ONLY un-popular person in the world"; he relates to the listener. In more heart-felt songs, like "Perfect", he sings about the pressures that parents can sometimes place on a child. With appearences by Joel from Good Charlotte and Mark Hoppus of Blink182, this cd will probably the best thing you bought for anyone, including yourself. So, if you'e feeling sorry for yourself, or you want to listen to an up-beat song with entertaining lyrics...go buy Simple Plan's new cd.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars In a field of dictators, these guys are like Stalin, easily., August 21, 2004

By	El Reanimator-o (The CO) - See all my reviews

Before my musical tastes went off the deep end completely around September of 2002, I remember my friends playing this in his car when we were driving up to the mountains.
Now, pop punk is really a hit and miss thing.I LOVED Green Day as a young buck, and I could listen to Blink 182 and actually enjoy it. Then my roommate at the time got this CD I'm reviewing and kept playing it...
To say "No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls" changed my outlook on music is severely inadequate to express my reaction to Simple Plan.
Anyways, we were driving along and "I'd Do Anything" starts blaring through the 4x10". Normally, I'd hear my roommate start playing it and I'd put on my headphones and listen to something else. Simple Plan was really, just too simple of a plan for me to follow. But now it's thundering inside the car with the volume at 11 and I CANNOT ESCAPE IT. The album somewhat plays out...
Simple Plan had finally shown me how far "mainstream" music has devolved, even since 1997. Within the period of 5 years, we've gone from "OK Computer" to THIS. (I'm not slagging "OK Computer", it is THE best rock album of the 20th century to me). Maybe I am getting older, but I faintly remember when even the clone bands actually had something going for them.
I could go into how Green Day did this with more balls and skill more than a decade ago before they fell off the boat. I could go into how Blink 182 are a hundred times better than this at their laziest and greediest. I could go into how this is the weakest dillution of an already drastically weakened formula. I could say that not once did I even feel like I was being rocked. I could say that I wouldn't consider this CD fun EVER. Instead, I will say Simple Plan have finally made me respect hair metal. You can say that hair metal signifies some of the worst qualities in music and I would fullheartedly agree. I would then proceed to tell you that at least Vince Neil was snorting half his body weight in coke a month and Bret Michaels was banging half the females in Los Angeles WHILE probably doing his whole body weight in coke a night and they still kept going. Simple Plan just need to get their asses kicked by Northern Idaho skinhead punks.
So after my encounter with Simple Plan that one September afternoon I proceeded to buy El-P's solo album "Fanastic Damage", Boards of Canada's "Geogaddi", and Godspeed You Black Emperor's "Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada". 3 completely different genres for sure, but any three of these CDs are lightyears beyond Simple Plan's comprehension. That's not saying much, as even Days of the New is probably beyond their comprehension anyways.
So before I get REAL longwinded, maybe I should give Simple Plan credit in that their brand of music made me follow my own existing esoteric tastes even farther. But then I might as well say Pol Pot was an alright guy because he taught me communist regime inspired genocide was bad. There's no way in hell that's going to happen.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It's Just So Hard Being a Kid These Days, July 14, 2003

By	Ian Robert Hrabe "Ian H" (Lawrence, KS) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

You know, it's just so hard being a kid these days, and Simple Plan...well, wouldn't know. This is, of course considering that every member of the band is of or above legal drinking age in the states and has created a new kind of poseur status. No, I won't wave the "You're not punk" finger at these guys, maybe I will, it isn't punk rock if that is what you want to know, pure bubble gum pop with distortion, nothing more. Ok, back to the part about them being poseurs. Their lyrics are that of a 16 year-old's journal. If they were 16 years old I would understand, but a 21 year old singing about how tough it is when dad takes aways the car and grounds me, what does he care anymore, he can move out. The songs are about high-school romance and they've long since graduated, I think and I just find this absolutely hilarious.

I could probably mistake this band for a group of 16 year olds now that I think about it. I was channel surfing and noticed that MTV had a "Behind the warped tour with Simple Plan" segment coming up and figured that I had to see that. It was too good. They all had their perfectly spiked hair, except for the bald guy, and acted like children that somehow stole instruments and decided to jump around a lot. Punk rock was bound to be exploited (no pun intended because the Exploited were a disgrace to punk rock) and I knew that this day would come. Hey, it has been coming for years and is now in full force with the new boy bands (following the demise of the likes of Nsync and the Backstreet Boys) complete with relationship confidentiality contracts. Throw in the goofy stage presence (i.e. Everyone jump on cue) and a rowdy group of underage girls and boys in Hot Topic fatigue and put Simple Plan on the mainstage but not for their talent.

They need to live it up now because songs about "sneaking out of your parents house on Friday night" just won't fly when you're thirty, or twenty-five. How long will it last?...