Some drunk dude who can kind of play guitar belts out a few sloppy tunes during a bender. Maybe a few people at the party think it is funny, though none do after the third song. No one remembers it the next day. No one recorded it.

Kevin Greenspon’s idea is a good one: an ode to alcohol and all the small joys and sorrows that come from intoxication. He blends folk, basic rock and some math rock into said guitar-driven odes. The problem is, he is not some drunk, and “Del Tecate” is not some hazily remembered party moment. He presents these cocky, trying-hard-to-be believably-jaded songs as somehow defiantly meaningful. Hell, he even includes a lyric sheet!

Songs like “Hurricane High Gravity (Feel The Pull)”, “Truth Serum” and “Girl, I’ve got Standards” might work as short little power-pop candies if there wasn’t that air of wannabe cool here. Greenspon does not pull that persona off by a long shot, instead sounding like some guy who didn’t get into Ween recording his revenge.

The music on “Del Tecate” is decent to often solid, but the lyrics betray the soul of this record, and it isn’t pretty. We’ve all laughed at and told a lot of jokes that seemed hilarious when drunk, but most of us never thought that recording them was a hip, good idea. 5/10 -- Mike Wood (17 December, 2008)