This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Some songs are so infectious that even as you listen to them for the first time, you’d swear you’ve heard them before.
Well, if you get that sensation from (I’m Gonna) Kick You Out, the second cut on the new Caesars album, it’s not necessarily a sign of greatness — it’s because the tune was used in that vodka cooler ad where kids in a laundromat oversoap the washers and party in the suds. Still, if that 30-second slice of fuzzed-out garage-rock glory caught your ear, the rest of 39 Minutes Of Bliss (In An Otherwise Meaningless World) will come reasonably close to honouring its title. From the opening lyrics of Sort It Out — “I wanna smoke crack / ’Cause you’re never coming back” — through the mid-’60s Stones-rock of Only You to the caffeinated jangle of You Don’t Mean A Thing To Me, Caesars provide a retro-rock blast of choppy guitars, crash ’n’ bash drums, echo-soaked production and punky irreverence. The downside? Half these songs were issued back in 1998, when the Swedish band were called Twelve Caesars. Now, I don’t mind listening to jingles. But asking me to sit through reruns is too much.
