I remember seeing Big D live years ago and falling in love with their album Good Luck released back in 1999. Their high-energy punk ska music backed by a kick-ass horn section really made their sound stand out. Then I caught them at Warped Tour about five years ago and realized what I loved about this band had been utterly destroyed — a horn-driven pop-punk band.

For The Damned, The Dumb & The Delirious is a return of sorts to what I enjoyed about this band 12 years ago, although it’s a far cry from Good Luck. “Walls” opens it off with a taste of the older punk ska stylings from Big D, and the carefree fun filled ska feel continues into the next song “Clothes Off.” From here on, the remaining 16 tracks are hit and miss. The song “Best of Them All” comes across as a horn-filled rip-off from fellow Boston lads The Dropkick Murphys. The flow of this album just doesn’t do it for me. Granted, there are some decent tracks, most of which have that older Big D sound — tracks like “Set Me Straight” and “Not Our Fault” — but there are other tracks that just don’t seem to fit. Then there’s the horns — they just seem to lack any real impression, no power and quite lackluster. I just don’t find anything here that excites me, not like the old Big D I used to skank it up to.

(Side One Dummy Records, 1944 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90068)