CD Review: Mest "Photographs"

What's the dillio with Mest? This band used to be all about drinking Milwaukee's Best and partying hard and using language that would make, if not your mother, then the local parish priest blush. But on Photographs, their fourth album in five years, Mest ditched the bouncy beats and is basically asking fans to trade in their pogo-sticks for a rocking chair and slippers.

Now the band is writing songs with titles like, "Take Me Away (Cried Out to Heaven)" and "As His Heart Dies (My Mistake)." This from the same group that, just a couple of years ago, was writing songs like "Fuct Up Kid" and whose big hit basically went like this, "With the top down/ seat back/we're rollin' in my Cadillac." Perhaps their friendship with Good Charlotte, whose latest release was also laughably pretentious, is starting to rub off.

Basically, Mest has given us 12 sober, similar sounding cuts. They might get one or two right, like the occasionally elegant, prom-worthy, piano driven "This Time." Unfortunately, that's not enough to justify this album's existence. When bands grow up they are supposed to make smarter music — not get boring.

Grade: F