Originally issued in 1998, this is the San Diego reggae/punk band's sophomore effort; the 2008 reissue includes the group's eponymous debut as a bonus disc. To say that
The Longest Barrel Ride
finds
Slightly Stoopid
maturing would be something of an exaggeration, but their sound is tightening up a bit even if their lyrics remain firmly grounded in the SoCal punk/reggae verities: weed, surfing, the perfidy of cops, etc.
's most obvious stylistic referent is
Sublime
, the band to whose
Skunk
imprint they were signed while still in high school. And high school seems to be hanging on: songs like
"I'm So Stoned,"
"Johnny Law,"
and
"Running Away"
are almost defiantly adolescent, and that's not always a bad thing. The headlong hardcore shred of
"Johnny Law"
is actually more expert and more musically convincing than the rather stiff reggae exercises
"Struggler"
"Castles of Sand"
; ska-core romps like
"Living Dread"
are better still. But the album's 20 tracks contain too much filler for it to be a truly worthwhile purchase. This reissue appends some acoustic demos as a hidden track at the end. (There is a similar addendum at the end of the bonus disc version of the band's debut album.) ~ Rick Anderson