Music Review // The Dirty Nil "Am I The Menace"

 

The Dirty Nil embrace a power pop punk sound which is somewhere between The Living End and All American Rejects.   These guitar chords crush through, starting and stopping, as the vocals can be as cleanly sung as they are screamed.   This is just one of those songs that gives off strong vibes of "If it's too loud then you're too old".

"Am I The Menace" asks a question which needs to be answered by a lot of people.  I'll always remember this story from when I was younger when someone said that their little boy Johnny was in the marching band and everyone else was marching out of rhythm except for him.  It just feels like sometimes when everyone else seems to be the problem, maybe we need to look at ourselves and we're the problem.

In true fashion of someone who is in fact toxic, this song has the chorus hook of "Have I been toxic all along / Not likely".   That "not likely" comes out a lot and it's funny because the more you listen to the song the less you feel like it's true.  People who really feel like everyone around them is the problem and not them rarely have that much self-reflection to think that they are toxic.  The "not likely" feels tongue in cheek and this feels more like a song about someone else versus the person singing it.

Perhaps the greatest part about this song is that it can be used as a way to find out which people are the problem, who is the menace.   IF you're singing this song and thinking it's about someone else, you're likely okay.   But if you're singing this song in a way where you're serious and don't think you're the problem (Hitting a little hard on the "not likely") then you likely are the menace and should be avoided.   Plus it's just so much fun to sing along with in general.