Seven Minutes in Heaven

Jerk Magnet crafts the sort of perfectly acceptable music that groups like Sum 41 and Blink 182 have ridden to the top of the pop charts. The songs are not bad, boring, or forgettable. On the other hand, they are also not great, inspiring, or original. What is left is some decent by-the-numbers punk rock that tackles the time-honored topics of girls and being young. Their strongest feature is their predictability; they play the same three chords that the Ramones were playing 20 years before, but it is almost comforting to be able to know what direction the song is going into before it even does it. These may sound like complaints, but there is little more you can ask for from a young punk band in 2002 than what Jerk Magnet delivers. Fans of poppy punk should give this a listen; all others need not apply.