Enjoy! (Descendents album)

Enjoy!
Studio album by the Descendents
Released 1986
Recorded March–April 1986 at Radio Tokyo studios in Venice, California
Genre Punk rock
Length 31:30
Label New Alliance, Restless
Producer Bill Stevenson
Descendents chronology
Bonus Fat
(1985)		 Enjoy!
(1986)		 All
(1987)

Enjoy! is the third album by the Manhattan Beach, California-based punk rock band the Descendents, released in 1986 through New Alliance Records and Restless Records. It was their only album recorded with bassist Doug Carrion, who along with guitarist Ray Cooper left the band after the album's accompanying tour. Enjoy! was marked by the use of toilet humor, with references to defecation and flatulence in its artwork, the title track, and "Orgofart". It also displayed a darker, more heavy metal-influenced sound in songs like "Hürtin' Crüe", "Days Are Blood", and "Orgo 51", with other songs recalling the pop-influenced punk of the band's previous efforts. The album also features a cover version of The Beach Boys' "Wendy", the only cover song in the band's catalog.

Contents

Background

Following the recording of 1985's I Don't Want to Grow Up, original Descendents bassist Tony Lombardo had left the band due to his job with the United States Postal Service and was replaced by Doug Carrion.[1][2][3][4] After three tours in support of I Don't Want to Grow Up, the band recorded Enjoy! in March and April 1986 at Radio Tokyo studios in Venice, California.[5][6] Drummer Bill Stevenson acted as producer of the album, working with recording engineers Richard Andrews and Ethan James.[5][6]

The lyrics of "Hürtin' Crüe" derived from a high school classmate of singer Milo Aukerman who had earned a score of 1420 on the SAT, gaining him entry into the United States Military Academy. Gloating about his accomplishment, he sang a taunt with the lyrics "I am better than you / You are a piece of poo / 1420". Aukerman incorporated these lyrics into "Hürtin' Crüe".[4] The cover artwork for Enjoy! was drawn by guitarist Ray Cooper under the pseudonym "Scoob Droolins".[4][5] Rather than printing the song titles on the reverse of the album's sleeve, the band instead replaced them with various euphemisms for feces.[7]

Enjoy! was released jointly through New Alliance Records and Restless Records, and the band supported it with a tour through the Summer of 1986.[3][8] Following the tour both Carrion and Cooper left the band, and were replaced by Karl Alvarez and Stepehen Egerton, respectively.[1][2][3] In 1987 New Alliance was sold to SST Records, who re-released Enjoy! on cassette and compact disc. The cassette and CD versions added two additional tracks: "Orgofart" and "Orgo 51".[9] "Orgofart" consists entirely of the band members cheering each other on as they fart into recording equipment, a technique also used in "Enjoy", while "Orgo 51" is a heavy metal-influenced instrumental track.[7]

Reception

Jeremy Salmon of Allmusic gave the album two stars out of five, remarking that "Highbrow humor was never a signature of the Descendents, but the toilet-themed album Enjoy! is a bit much."[7] He criticized the scatological humor of "Enjoy", "Orgofart", and the album's artwork, and called the heavy metal-styled "Days Are Blood" and "Orgo 51" "disposable", but noted the similarly heavy "Hürtin' Crüe" as an exception worthy of its inclusion on the band's best-of album Somery.[7] Despite the weaker tracks, he noted that Enjoy! includes several songs central to the Descendents' repertoire, including "Kids", "Wendy", and "Sour Grapes", calling the album "a fine metaphor for the history of the Descendents; no matter what turbulence befell the band, some excellent songs were still able to seep through anything that clogged."[7] Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone called Enjoy! "weak overall, due in part to Lombardo's departure, though mostly because of the scatolog-ical humor on the title track. ('Sniff my ass while I pass gas,' goes but one pearl.) The album is res-cued by a cover of the Beach Boys' 'Wendy' and the band's own 'Sour Grapes,' on which Auckerman gets rejected by a snooty new-wave girl."[10]

Track listing

[4][5][6][9]

LP version

Side A
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Enjoy"   Milo Aukerman, Doug Carrion, Ray Cooper, Bill Stevenson 2:10
2. "Wendy" (originally performed by The Beach Boys) Brian Wilson, Mike Love 2:22
3. "Kids"   Stevenson 0:44
4. "Hürtin' Crüe"   Aukerman, Carrion, Cooper, Stevenson 2:34
5. "Sour Grapes"   Aukerman, Carrion 3:47
6. "Get the Time"   Aukerman 3:12
Side B
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Cheer"   Stevenson 3:01
2. "80's Girl"   Stevenson 2:15
3. "Green"   Aukerman, Carrion 3:34
4. "Days Are Blood"   Aukerman, Carrion, Cooper, Stevenson 7:51
Total length:
 31:30

CD and cassette versions

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Enjoy"   Milo Aukerman, Doug Carrion, Ray Cooper, Bill Stevenson 2:10
2. "Wendy" (originally performed by The Beach Boys) Brian Wilson, Mike Love 2:22
3. "Kids"   Stevenson 0:44
4. "Hürtin' Crüe"   Aukerman, Carrion, Cooper, Stevenson 2:34
5. "Sour Grapes"   Aukerman, Carrion 3:47
6. "Get the Time"   Aukerman 3:12
7. "Orgofart"   Aukerman, Carrion, Cooper, Stevenson 2:18
8. "Cheer"   Stevenson 3:01
9. "80's Girl"   Stevenson 2:15
10. "Green"   Aukerman, Carrion 3:34
11. "Days Are Blood"   Aukerman, Carrion, Cooper, Stevenson 7:51
12. "Orgo 51"   Aukerman, Carrion, Cooper, Stevenson 1:20
Total length:
 35:08

Personnel

[5][6]

Band

Production

References

  1. ^ a b (1998) "All/Descendents Family Shrub" [CD bookelt]. Album notes for All by All. Fort Collins, Colorado: Owned & Operated Records (O&O 007-2).
  2. ^ a b "All/Descendents Family Shrub". descendentsonline.com. Descendents. 1996. http://www.descendentsonline.com/archive/gnusletters/pages/1996fall-b-norb.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 
  3. ^ a b c Stevenson, Bill (1989). Album notes for Hallraker: Live! by Descendents [CD liner]. Lawndale, California: SST Records (SST CD 205).
  4. ^ a b c d e "F.A.Q.". descendentsonline.com. Descendents. http://www.descendentsonline.com/faq/. Retrieved 2010-02-03. 
  5. ^ a b c d e (1986) Album notes for Enjoy! by Descendents [CD liner]. Lawndale, California: SST Records (SST CD 242).
  6. ^ a b c d (1991) Album notes for Somery by Descendents [CD liner]. Lawndale, California: SST Records (SST CD 259).
  7. ^ a b c d e Salmon, Jeremy. "Review: Enjoy!". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r5532. Retrieved 2010-02-08. 
  8. ^ Blush, Steven (2001). American Hardcore: A Tribal History. Los Angeles: Feral House. p. 310. ISBN 0-9229-15-71-7. 
  9. ^ a b "Discography: Full-Lengths". descendentsonline.com. Descendents. http://www.descendentsonline.com/discography/full_lengths/. Retrieved 2010-02-08. 
  10. ^ Eliscu, Jenny (2004). "Descendents Biography". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/descendents/biography. Retrieved 2010-02-14. 
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