Descendents: I Don't Want To Grow Up [SST]

Why you'll love it

This SST pressing has the lyrics and credits printed on the back sleeve. Critics praised its catchy songs, strong melodies and pop-leaning love songs, and it marked the band's return after a two-year break.

This edition

• Lyrics and credits on back sleeve
• Pressed in the USA
• Stereo mix

About the album

Few punk records come with a better backstory for their title. After Milo Goes to College, singer Milo Aukerman did exactly that, studying biology at UC San Diego, while drummer Bill Stevenson spent his downtime touring the world with Black Flag. When the two got back together in 1985, the Descendents had plenty to catch up on.

Recorded in April 1985 at Music Lab in Hollywood, with Stevenson and Dave Tarling producing, the album was cut fast and with little rehearsal, and it sounds gloriously alive. New guitarist Ray Cooper joins bassist Tony Lombardo, playing on his last Descendents album. The title track is a short, sharp anthem, "Silly Girl" and "In Love This Way" are pure power-pop heart-on-sleeve stuff, "Good Good Things" bounces, and "Christmas Vacation" shows how tender a hardcore band could get.

It came out first on New Alliance Records, with SST taking over later. Forty years on, a song called "I Don't Want to Grow Up" is now sung along to by people with mortgages, which is either a triumph of art or a very effective form of denial.

Also at Kops: more Descendents on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On New Alliance / SST (cat# SST 143), a reissue of the 1985 album.