Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

All of my expectations I had for Do it Yourself by Victims of Circumstance were filled. The lyrics were simple and catchy and the music had a great high energy vibe to it, which I couldn’t help but bop my head to. I loved the raspy sound lead singer Mike Smyth’s vocals have.

My favorite song on the CD was Legacy; it’s an uplifting and inspiring song that has a fast and urgent beat. Post Modern Love had such a catchy chorus that I could get out of my head. I loved band’s cover of Elton John’s Daniel, which is a song that I thought couldn’t be better. There were a couple of dark songs, which were Brandon’s Challenge and Rocks and Human Bombs. And no punk rock CD would be complete with out some songs about politics, which could be found in the songs Do Nothing (So Everyone Knows You Mean Business) and Me and Alex P. Keaton.

Smyth and Glenn Stewart, who is the drummer, started writing songs in 2005 when they worked together at a debt settlement company that Stewart owned. After that they took some un-used warehouse space, which was by their office, and changed it into a rehearsal room. Finally that space turned into a recording studio, and the two guys were ready to record the many songs they had written.  Stewart and Tim “Johnny Vegas” Burton, from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, created the label Financial Records. Burton also played Saxophone and helped produce Victims of Circumstance’s debut album, Do it Yourself. The songs on the album are catchy and easily get stuck in your head.