Despite all the horrible things I’m about to say about Tony Sly and his new record 12 Song Program, I’d like to take a moment and say that I have no problem believing that Tony is a nice guy, a “good dude” as we say — and I think such a cretinous concept of “prominent pop-punk figure releases emo-folk album” could only come from the bottom of one’s heart. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be any good.

12 Song Program blends together within the first two tracks. Opener “The Shortest Pier” gets things going with a sparsely-plucked guitar and Tony’s drawn out stanza-punctuations — it’s definitely slight, but charming enough to get you to track two, “Expired.” Unfortunately, “Expired” borrows the exact same sparsely-plucked guitar and drawn out stanza-punctuations that defined “The Shortest Pier,” and that homogeneity continues throughout. On first spin I actually thought it was some sort of joke, like “how many times can we play the same song before the silly music critic notices?” Sly’s compositions are invariably stupid-boring, like it should be cranking out of the Middle School battle of the bands — I mean, let’s be honest, the sad-bastard, single-guitar, lyrically-challenged brand of folk music is everlastingly going to generate diminishing returns — and 12 songs of it isn’t going to change anyone’s minds.

(Fat Wreck Chords, PO Box 193690, San Francisco, CA 94119)