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Oh please, not another once-exciting group being hit by the dreaded curse of "growing up in public". Sadly so. This, the fifth album from SoCal slackjawed punk-metal queens the Donnas, is being touted as their "mature" album. Now, while some bands have managed to do the growing up thing quite well in the last year (Green Day notably), the whole charm of the first four Donnas albums was the way they coupled brilliant no-brainer lyrics such as "History teacher, you're a goner/I wanna be a Unabomber!" with the sort of riffs which tore down your resistance effortlessly.
"Gold Medal", however, is a more mid-paced effort and all the worse for it. Whereas once the guitars revved like Beelzebub on a Harley, here the playing's more studied and unexceptional. Whereas once the lyrics were joyously dumb, here there's a new seriousness about the Donnas on songs like "Don't Break Me Down" and "Fall Behind Me" which, like Blink 182 a year ago, just doesn't sit right with a group who've come up with such moshpit gems as "Hyperactive" and "Take It Off" in years gone by.
"Gold Medal" is as awkward as a first shag and every bit as messy. If this is the direction the Donnas choose to follow for their next album then hopefully they'll be sitting a bit more comfortably with it by then.
Rating: 5/10
Reviewed by Andy James
