ALBUM REVIEW: This Is Crime Wave – Codefendants

Crime Wave is a genre of music born solely from the minds of CODEFENDANTS. Fat Mike, the vocalist from from NOFX; Sam King, vocalist for GET DEAD; and rapper Ceschi Ramos have created – somehow – a blend of hip-hop, new wave, THE BEATLES, and flamenco. After King got out of prison, he and Ramos bonded over their love of music, and two years later they started recording songs. With Fat Mike first involved as a producer, he soon joined the group as a full member and thus CODEFENDANTS was born.

Def Cons opens up the album, starting off with a restrained guitar riff that disappears and reappears spontaneously throughout the runtime. Ramos is easily the stand-out performer here, as his rapping skills get a lot of time to shine. The song itself flip-flops between hip-hop and punk. The mix makes this an uneven, disjointed song that doesn’t quite know what lane it wants to go in; the hip-hop style suits the song, but it dominates the runtime, leaving the punk elements lagging behind.

Abscessed (featuring GET DEAD and Onry Ozzborn) thankfully amends this, and even manages to give each genre equal footing. The punk opening and choruses are helped tremendously by the rest of GET DEAD, who emphasise the alternative side of CODEFENDANTS. On the other side of the coin (and the next song), Fast Ones (featuring THE DOC) wouldn’t sound out of place on any other hip-hop album. The trap beat in this track is the highlight as it doesn’t even sound too dissimilar to the guitars used on the other songs.

In fact, what started out as the album’s flaw becomes its strength as it goes on. Whether it is the gentle acoustic rock of Suicide By Pigs, the rap-rock of Disaster Scenes (featuring STACEY DEE), or the jazz-influenced Suckers, the production makes the genre-hopping flow with ease. Each song offers something new, and they all fit surprisingly well together.

In fact, the only let down is that the lyrics are sometimes a little cliché. For example, lines like “I’m a liar and a bad friend / Just like every other human” in the aforementioned Disaster Scenes, and “Heroes are human / And humans can be trash” in Brutiful might cause people to roll their eyes; thankfully, this is not the case for all the songs, which in a way makes them even more noticeable, which is a shame because the lyrics overall are great for a debut.

CODEFENDANTS have overall produced a killer debut album. Despite a slightly clunky start and some cliché lyrics scattered throughout, This Is Crime Wave might be up your street. It rips up the rulebook, and it technically shouldn’t work at all. Who would want to hear something that sounds like a mashup of 1960s pop and 2020s hip-hop, with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in for good measure? Not many people, that’s for sure. But after listening to This Is Crime Wave, you’ll realise this is something special, fun, daring, and – most importantly – something you’ll want to come back to again. It is an accessible album that might not please everyone, but if you’re willing to give it a chance then keep an open mind and dive into Crime Wave. It just might become your new favourite genre.

Rating: 8/10

This Is Crime Wave is set for release on March 24th via Bottles To The Ground.

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