Satirnine

Satirnine play upbeat pop punk in the style of the Ramones, look like Joan Jett and sound exactly like contemporaries Sahara Hotnights and Mensen. Yes, they’re from Sweden, they’re "assisted" (whatever that means) by the Hives’ producer, and yes, these four very cute gals are all in their very early 20s. There is a highly stylised way all these aforementioned Scandinavian girl punk bands that I’ve grouped Satirnine in with all sing in. It’s a naïve-sounding, oddly lilting pleading/complaining style of singing that almost sounds as if they’re reading the lyrics of a page for the very first time. Also, there’s just not enough punk in the rock here, resulting in a no guts, no glory verdict. Ladies, the rockers wanna rock, so if you’re gonna play punk, you gotta go for broke. In the end what you’ve got here is a barely passable bar band with mediocre songs about lost friendship and love. P.S. — don’t tempt lazy reviewers by naming your less than perfect album Void of Value.