Extra Medium Kickball All-Star (17)

AMG Review of Extra Medium Kickball All-Star (17)

Vincent Jeffries
All Music Guide

Fifteen's tirades against abusive parents, music business realities, fascism, environmental destruction, and religion get above-average musical treatments on the group's one and only Cool Guy Records release, Extra Medium Kickball All-Star. If Jeff Ott's hyper-progressive lyrics were given a metaphor or two -- if only to break up the single-mindedness of his "poetic" output -- things would work out even better. But the singer/guitarist sounds better than ever despite all of his issues. Perhaps it's the phonetics, but for some reason the same old messages sound almost fresh on highlights like "Over and Over" and "Chris' Song." The latter wasn't written by Ott, but the tone won't exactly strike Fifteen fans as unfamiliar. A strong effort from the group, Extra Medium Kickball All-Star is one of the best from Ott and company.