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Officially a pop-punk band with detours into metal-lite, Zebrahead’s fourth album, Phoenix, is a bit of a mixed bag. Thematically, this is a teen angst album, something you imagine a band of fifteen-year-olds wrote in their parents’ garage. But Zebrahead has been around for more than a decade and the bandmates are all in their thirties. You kind of wonder what the music would sound like if they would just grow up.

There are hints of brilliance all over Phoenix. Forget lead single Mental Health and listen to the pulsing protest track The Juggernauts with its call to action, “The streets are barreling We’re freezing to reinvent our miscontent The sound is deafening.” Of course, the song could just as easily be about breaking curfew. There isn’t a clear sense of urgency that demonstrates that any of these songs are really about something.

Ignite evokes the best of Green Day. Mike Dexter Is A God, Mike Dexter Is A Role Model, Mike Dexter Is An Asshole is a great piece of pop music. Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right, But Three Rights Make A Left is great fuck you song. But the long titles, not really about anything, don’t help the sense of immaturity that swamps this album. Hints of brilliance, maybe, but you have to wade through a lot of crap to get to the highlights.

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