Guilty Pleasures [Digipak] (CD - 2007)

Being proud Canadians playing politically tinged old-school punk rock, it's a wonder the Wednesday Night Heroes weren't signed to Youth Brigade's Better Youth Organization label all along. Guilty Pleasures is the Edmonton, Alberta, quartet's third and best album, the perfect meeting point of early-'80s hardcore (Social Distortion, Naked Raygun, and, yes, Youth Brigade) and the late-'70s second-wave of U.K. street punks led by the Cockney Rejects and Sham 69: these songs are fundamentally melodic and not particularly speed-obsessed, to the point that the listener can actually hear and comprehend Graeme McKinnon's astute but not strident lyrics. Highlights include the spirited antiwar tune "Action" and the early Black Flag-like chant-along "Open Fire," songs guaranteed to unite punks old and new into one giant posi mosh. ~ Stewart Mason minimize