Band:	Medusa
Album:	Can't Fucking Win
Style:	Punk rock
Release date:	March 2011

01. Venomous
02. She's Venusian
03. Sugarlips
04. Tinkerbell
05. Luck
06. You're So Lucid
07. Donna Marie
08. Overdose
09. Pollen
10. You Can Take Anything (But Don't Take My Rum)
11. Divorcing Thoughts
12. Tragic Streak

Sex, drugs, and rock n roll. That's all been done before. It takes a little more to make an album interesting. Common knowledge? I thought so, but someone really needs to tell Medusa this.

But ultimately it isn't the heard-it-all-before sense that makes this album boring. What this album lacks is what good rock and heavy metal albums almost all have: consistent energy. Can't Fucking Win runs out of steam. Fast.

It starts with a happy and drunken sprint, with solid riffs and an abundance of intoxicated, boyish vigor and liveliness. The second and third tracks slow it to a jog. The middle tracks slow it to a walk before having it find a bench to sit on, clutching its side in the meanwhile. And by the end, it's as if the album has said fuck it, laid down, and reached for its flask and a cigarette.

The early tracks promise an album of fun, but about half way in, the listener is left with nothing but really standard, uninspired sleaze and pop punk-tinged rock? and a techno-pop song ("Luck")? It goes from being energetic and youthful with its first couple songs to being a sweaty and panting, lackluster husk of drunken monotony by the mid-way point. Now I like a lot of drunks, but there are a lot of boring ones out there too; the sort of drunks who don't want to go crazy and break stuff, who just want to sit down and have a nap once they've had enough. The ones who want to "chill". Medusa proves to be of the second category about midway into this.

The songs I enjoy on this, I really enjoy. But, in the end, Can't Fucking Win turns out to be a pretty suitable title for this album. Though it might just as easily have been called We Quit, or Yeah, No Thanks.

Highlights: "Venomous" and "Tinkerbell"