Fifteen years ago, OPM briefly became unexpected stars thanks to the popularity of ‘Heaven Is A Halfpipe’ and a timely skateboarding craze. However the band quickly faded into obscurity and you’d be hard pressed to name anything they’ve released since with successive albums failing to make an impact. Whether it’s to celebrate an anniversary or not, most album re-releases see the original tracks supplemented by a combination of b-sides, demos, or remixes, with one or two new songs tagged onto the end, but this re-release of ‘Menace To Sobriety’ offers nothing other than a re-working of the original album cover art.
OPM did manage to get a few singles out of ‘Menace To Sobriety’ when it was originally released back in 2000 and ‘Stash Up’ was one of them. Time has not been kind to it however and the clichéd attempt at fusing rock and hip-hop together sounds even worse now than it did back then. Sandwiched between ‘Stash Up’ and the other single ‘El Capitan’ is ‘Heaven Is A Halfpipe’. A philosophical debate about the afterlife it isn’t, but the simplistic piano riff and memorable chorus still hold their charm after all these years.
Unfortunately, ‘Heaven Is A Halfpipe’ is as good as it gets, resulting in a top-heavy album and the tracks that follow it are as embarrassing lyrically as they are badly written musically with the constant shifting in styles never convincing. ‘Undercover Freak’ tries to sound edgy but has completely cringe-worthy lyrics and a sub-standard reggae backing track, whereas ‘Brighter Side’ lazily attempts the funk-rock of Red Hot Chilli Peppers but with added rapping. For the most part the rapping feels like an afterthought that’s thrown in for the sake of it, but it’s no better when it takes centre stage as on the dull ‘Reality Check’.
Admittedly OPM have never taken themselves too seriously but a lot of the humour misses the point, with ‘Rage Against The Coke Machine’ being a pointless spoken word interlude and the forty five seconds of Minor Threat style thrashy punk on ‘15 Minutes’ long outstaying its welcome.
The musical landscape is constantly shifting and a great deal has changed in the fifteen years since ‘Menace To Sobriety’ was first released, making it hard to recommend to anyone. Long-term fans of the band are likely to still own a copy, those who find the pull of nostalgia too hard to resist are likely to be disappointed on their return, whereas any newcomers will be left scratching their heads. For those wondering what OPM are up to, earlier this year they released an EP called ‘The Minge Dynasty’, make of that what you will.
CHRIS HILSON