OPM - California Poppy CD Review

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Yes, OPM are still around. The guys that brought the world the song “Heaven is a Halfpipe” have now released their third CD, California Poppy. What? You don't remember them releasing another CD after Menace to Sobriety? Don’t worry, neither does anyone else. With their return, you’ll be treated to 13 more reggae/ska/hip-hop tunes, with the majority of them sounding like Sublime b-sides from a Sublime b-sides album, only with a little more pop influence.

To be honest, there actually are a handful of songs on here that show some variety and are good listens once or twice through, but the majority aren’t. Instead of focusing on the negative, which would lead to a ridiculously long review, let’s look at what’s good on this release for now.

The song “Love Don’t” has a gentle mix of pop-reggae and some twangy country-rock guitars, which leads to an alternation of mellow, boring verses and uppity, bouncy choruses, which isn't terrible, but it could have been better. The first real song on the disc after the pointless intro, “For Tonight”, is a semi-sentimental, semi-tongue-in-cheek love song that actually has just the right vibe to make you not care about the incongruent lyrics and just nod along to the beat, wishing you were out sharing a joint with your boys, thinking about all those hood rats you boinked in high school.

The good majority of the rest of this disc, however, you’ll hear a group of guys that are content to sit around and put out some very mundane, blasé, and ultimately boring slowed down Sublime rip off songs with a little too much pop influence. I’m sure that the people that buy OPM CDs were so stoned out of their gourd when they picked this disc up, and when they're in their red-eyed state it may seem like the songs aren't all that bad, but if you’re not taking some massive hits from the bong, there is no excuse for buying this album.

However, and I suggest you do this at your own risk, if you want to listen to some of the most laughable pseudo-serious, horn tinged tripe to dirty your eardrums, go listen to the song “Voodoo Hex”. With a loungy, porn soundtrack style beat and lyrics like, “She’s got class for days, and ass for weeks / She makes me wait before I peak / Can’t figure out her moods like a Rubix Cube,” it is belly laugh funny… and then you get to listen to “Born Again Virgin” only a few songs later! I’d quote the lyrics, but they’re seriously out and out some of the worst ever written and no one should have to read them. I'm talking worse than Limp Bizkit and Staind bad. Try not to shudder at the thought. I dare you.

So I tried to be nice. I tried to come in with an open mind. I tried to give this disc a chance. I don’t know why I did, but I did. No matter how open of a mind you have, though, this is beyond bad and if this disc is sitting in your CD collection, go out and play in traffic. The world will be a better place for the rest of us.