Off!'s songs could be terse outlines that opted to take on their own lives rather than wait to be fussed over. And brief, spiteful lives they are. Each track on the hardcore four-piece's first proper album functions like a kamikaze gnat.
Now in his 50s, former Circle Jerks vocalist Keith Morris is an almost more powerfully concentrated version of his early-'80s self, spending between 40 and 90 seconds per track on personal beefs ("I Got News for You"), the Founding Fathers ("Elimination"), and what may or may not be brief spatters of punk history ("Jet Black Girls"). He often approaches funny in his unsparing crudeness, proclaiming, on "King Kong Brigade," "I wanna club you like a baby seal/Staple your scalp to my steering wheel." But the real center is guitarist Dmitri Coats' compactly catchy riffs, which consistently ensure that Off! is a worthy companion to 2010's great First Four EPs collection.
