AMG Review of Five Lessons Learned

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Five Lessons Learned, the Swingin' Utters' second album for Fat Wreck Chords, builds on the breakthrough of their first, A Juvenile Product of the Working Class. They don't depart from their hard-hitting retro-punk formula at all -- there's nothing here that couldn't have been recorded in 1978 or 1980 -- but their sense of humor is sharpening, as are their hooks. There are a couple of weak cuts, but they speed by so fast you won't even notice them, and that makes this the group's best record to date.