Lockjaw (album)


Lockjaw is the second studio album by American rock band Dance Hall Crashers. Produced by the band themselves, Stoker and Rob Cavallo, the album was released on August 29, 1995, in the United States by Records, an imprint of MCA Records.
WWW dancehallcrashers.com

Critical reception

Pemberton Roach of AllMusic called Lockjaw a "wonderful reminder of the original spirit of ska-punk," elaborating that "Rather than celebrate the meathead/frat boy misogyny and overly simplistic anarchistic politics that have plagued a lot of "third-wave" ska and punk-pop, Dance Hall Crashers choose to throw a big ol' party." Trouser Press considered the album "a marvelous surge of mature and catchy power pop accented with punk juice and set—almost incidentally—to a breathless bluebeat." Music critic Gina Arnold referred to the dual vocals of Elyse Rogers and Karine Deniké as "... in a manner reminiscent of the '80s group Bananarama." Arnold classified the album as 'utterly frothy,' and several songs were criticized for being "...fun but lacking in depth." John Everson of Southtown Star gave the album a 5 out of 5, claiming Lockjaw as "the funniest album I've heard so far this year." An unspecified critic from Oakland Tribune highly criticized Lockjaw by giving the album a 1 out of 5 and blaming its shortcomings on Green Day's former managers who signed DHC onto Records. Rogers' and Deniké's vocals were also criticized as were the song choices, notably "Queen for a Day" and "We Owe," although the latter was also praised by the critic due in part to guitarists Jason Hammon and Scott Goodell, as was "Sticky."

Track listing

"Go" was previously released as a cassette single in early-1994 exclusively to Hawaii.
A 2024 limited re-release of the album, referred to by the band as a 'th anniversary release,' includes two unreleased songs: "American Dream" and "Footsteps". The re-release also includes a previously unreleased song, "Punk Rock Boy," along with "Truly Comfortable" from their 1998 EP Blue Plate Special.

In popular media

Two songs from the album are featured in movies: "Enough" is featured in the 1995 film Angus, and "Don't Wanna Behave" is part of the soundtrack in the 1996 film Bio-Dome.

Personnel

Information adapted from liner notes.
;Dance Hall Crashers
;Additional musicians
;Production
;Artwork