Unwritten Law

Like those funny little anecdotes that so often stall halfway through the retelling, live albums might seem like a great idea, but they usually end up being a case of "You had to be there." Oh, there are the rare transcendent or historic performances that make for essential listening. Far fore frequently, though, what makes a great album and what makes a great live show have little in common.

Apparently mindful of that, Unwritten Law hedge their bets here. The onstage banter–so much of which, without visual cues, falls flat on live discs–is at a minimum on Live and Lawless. The performance itself is solid: low on those stray notes, out of tune guitars, and off-key backing vocals that blend into the chaos at nightclub volumes but are painfully acute on headphones and home stereos. It’s as listenable as the material makes it. That is to say it's a definite cut below Green Day on the pop-punk spectrum, but it moves along briskly with just enough tempo changes and catchy choruses to sustain it through 17 tracks.

It's clean, yes–but maybe too clean. It's hard to see what this live album does that a greatest hits package wouldn't do better. Except, that is, to save Suburban Noize the expense of licensing the original recordings from the long list of labels that Unwritten Law previously called home. For an indie label, maybe that's more necessity than ploy – and paired with a live DVD (which includes a short acoustic set), it's definitely a good buy for longtime fans. But that's the extent of it.

—Mike Magnuson
10.03.08