Record Label: Hellcat Records
Genre: Reggae/ska
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

When most people think of Tim Armstrong, they immediately think of Rancid or the Transplants and if you told someone that he had a solo album coming out they would most likely think of it as sounding something like Lars Frederiksen’s solo album or pretty much like every Rancid album out there. Well, that’s not happening on “A Poet’s Life”…and that’s a great thing.

So what do you get when you take Tim Armstrong and back him up with the reggae white boys in the Aggrolites? You get the Aggrolites fronted by Tim Armstrong. The Tim Armstrong that last appeared on “Life Won’t Wait”. The Tim Armstrong that doesn’t have to rip through two minute punk songs with a voice so gravely and undecipherable that it would make a banshee cringe. Oh yeah, and you get one hell of a reggae album.

As with most Rancid albums, the songwriting is down to earth and deals with everything from gang violence and homelessness to long lost friends and places. As much as Tim Armstrong writes about social issues and subjects of a more general matter, he also takes the time to reflect inward and reveal a more personal side of himself. Wake Up tells the tale of a lover who gives her love to someone who doesn’t return the favor while there is someone who wants to love her more than she can ever know. Hold On deals with the struggles of trying to hold on to someone that you love as hard as you can even when they want to leave. My personal favorite song off of “A Poet’s Life” titled “Among the Dead” immediately reminded me of the story that was told about Operation Ivy on “Journey to the End of the East Bay”. In fact, you could possibly call it a continuation of that song. On this horn heavy, almost-but-not-quite ska song, Tim sings about the time period from around the end of Operation Ivy until the beginning of Rancid. He reveals how hard it was to have his dreams shattered when Op Ivy called it quits and how everything seemed hopeless and that he really had no purpose in life anymore if he couldn’t play music. Then, to quote the song “And then one day Matt says, let’s get the band back together. Let’s give this thing one more try.” Rancid was formed and the rest is history.

I have always been a big fan of the ska/reggae side of Rancid. To me, being the ska fan that I am, that has always been what has separated Rancid from the hordes of other punk bands out there. I love bands that, when you’re listening to an album, you don’t know what to expect from track to track. Rancid has always managed to keep me guessing from album to album…from song to song. They’ve managed to do that with their solo releases as well. Lars Frederiksen had his pair of solo albums that revealed his hardcore punk rock roots. Now Tim Armstrong has his solo album and instead of getting another Rancid punk rock solo album, you get one of the best, most well-written, well-rounded reggae albums this side of the new millennium. I guess we all know where Tim Armstrong’s roots lie.

Bottom Line: Take two great bands. Add lyrics. Stir. Taste. Come back for seconds, thirds and eighths.
Notable Tracks: Wake Up, Hold On, Translator, Among the Dead
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