Stellar Kart - 'all gas. no brake'

If you're a pop/punk fan, you'll love Stellar Kart's all gas. no brake. If you're not a fan, you should still give it a listen. The high energy, high impact songs are all well done with a lot of skill and a lot of passion.

Not being a big fan (or a small fan for that matter) of pop/punk music, Christian or secular, I was fairly certain that I wouldn't like all gas. no brake, but I was wrong. After hearing the opening few bars in "Student Driver" I was making what my kids call my "hmmmm face." The music itself is typical of punk ... fast and hard ... and the guys in Stellar Kart play it with a lot of energy and passion. Jordan Messer is a guy who definitely knows which ends of the drum sticks are which and the vocals, guitar and bass are just as strong.

The messages aren't particularly deep in many of the songs, and the ninth track, "Tree Climber" left me scratching my head wondering what in the world I just heard, but "Second Chance," "Finish Last" and the one slow tune "A Love Song" show that this group is more than just good music. (Not that I would expect a group of 20-something guys to release an album that solved all of the world's problems in 11 songs.) The songs do have lyrics that the youth of today will be able to relate to, however, so I may just be showing my age.

Stand-out cuts are "Student Driver," "Second Chance" and "A Love Song" with "Life is Good" getting an honorable mention and any of them would do well on radio. All in all, I'd have to say that Stellar Kart's freshman release is a good one and I expect to see great things out of this young band in the future.