Wow, this is a difficult one to pin down. Melbourne’s Root! (hailing members from TISM) and their new album Surface Paradise definitely stand out, somewhere, by itself. This tongue-in-cheek account of the suburbs is made up 15 rock and rolls songs of witty and weird lyrics, bizarre keyboard breakdowns and of course some dirty guitar riffs.

The album opens with “Surface Paradise Parts 5, 18, 35, 38, 47 & 92” and yes, that is the full name of the track. The sound of radio static is greeted by distorted guitar riff and cheesy keyboard, it’s fun and up-beat, though eventually ruined by “Surface Paradise Part 13” with weird, spoken word lyrics. “Joe Blogs” is a poppy piano track about the giant ether of unread blogs and Facebook accounts, and “I Hang Out With The Guys From Jet (‘s Uncle)” is a country, swinging number that would possibly have you singing along if it weren’t so corny.

I realise that the whole point of the album is to be some sort of socially commentary, and it is fun picking up and recognising some of the pop cultural remarks they have to say, and musically it’s a great album but I can’t get past the novelty factor and out-of-date humour, it really stopping me from being able to enjoy listening to the album without cringing at moments.

Review Score: 4.5/10