So why is Mad Caddies’ Quality Soft Core on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
It’s strange, our relationship with music, and more broadly with “art.” It changes, that’s for sure (except when it doesn’t!). Certainly what we really love when we’re five-years old (Underdog for me!) is different than when we’re 35-years old (Dog the Bounty Hunter!*).
* I’m kidding here, but it just sounded good to map the Dog against the Underdog, okay?
But there’s a lot of subtle changes that can happen over time, too, and that’s a dynamic I get to play with wrestle with and sweat over to my heart’s content while constructing this best 1,000 albums project.
Mad Caddies are a band that I greatly dig and admire… but in recently years I’ve wrangled with the fact that I used to like them a little more than I do these days. It’s a “me” and not a “them” thing to be sure, and it’s probable that this brand of frantically paced and sometimes goofy-sounding ska punk is simply geared to an age demo that I’ve (gracefully, hopefully?) aged out of by now to a large extent.
In essence, I’m no longer the guy that used to get his skank on in the mosh pit. I’m the guy at the periphery of the pit these days (and possibly ensconced in an even cushier vantage point), nursing my beverage, and nodding my head along to the beat.
And then that brings us to Quality Soft Core (an album name, by the way, that really does align with “goofy” part I mention above!), which is Mad Caddies’ debut album. In spending time with it recently, I realized that what I’ve come to appreciate most about it has shifted over time.
Whereas back in the day I was immediately drawn to the wildly paced and punky-aggressive “Cup O’ Tea,” I’m more drawn these days to “Goleta,” which is still frantically paced but leans more into the band’s third wave ska revival influences and has a groovy and infectious sound overall.
And then, as strange as it might sound, sometimes my taste even changes a bit within individual songs. For example, “Preppy Girl” pivots between more aggressive punk sections and cleaner-sounding, fast paced ska. It’s that clean ska rhythm that does it for me most these days, at least as it applies to Quality Soft Core.
I also appreciate the surf rock-tinged ska of “Mum’s the Word.”
Also see: Mad Caddies – Just One More: #733 of best 1,000 albums ever
Some stats & info about Mad Caddies – Quality Soft Core
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Ska Punk, Punk Rock, Third Wave Ska Revival, SoCal Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – not rated!
- When was Quality Soft Core released? 1996
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #603 out of 1,000
Mad Caddies’ Quality Soft Core on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Mad Caddies’ Quality Soft Core that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
It’s only human nature, pollutes temptation. We have reserved bookings for the fathers of our nation.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.