I had prepared all kinds of incredibly crude things to say about Powerman 5000, I mean, the intro would’ve been something along the lines of: ‘It sounds like Social Distortion, but without the talent. Not clear yet? Their singer looks like Billy Idol. Tambien no? Okay: they have a stupid name. Still nothing... Alright, let’s see… ’ And later something like ‘Transform was released much to the dismay of fans and critics alike, because in their opinion it sucked some huge mothercocking donkey ass.’ But no, it’s not true. Research shows people overall liked ‘Transform’ and listening to `Destroy What You Enjoy` multiple times, I found myself tapping along to the straight up rock ‘n roll it delivers. Damn!

In 1991, Vanilla Ice conquered the world. And, being an extremely young person, I loved ‘Extremely Live’, and still kind of do. But that’s besides the point, another thing that happened in 1991, was that Powerman 5000 started its existence. Eight years after that, their sophomore full-length album ‘Tonight The Stars Revolt!’ sold over a million copies. Ka-ching! Richess and bitches. Sorry, there I was caught up in hip hop-slang. Then their next album was pulled in 2001, because, so said frontman Spider One (younger brother of Rob Zombie), it was too similar to the stars revolting thing. That was a problem, because nu-metal, or rapping over metal riffs, was getting old by 2001. They didn’t want to sound like a copycat of say, Limp Bizkit. Two years after the mishap, they released ‘Transform’, on which Spider and the peeps (I’ll stop this rap slang insanity right now) brought much more of a rock ‘n roll-approach. Punk induced rock. Or pop-rock, somewhere along those lines. In 2006 ‘Destroy What You Enjoy’ was upon us, but for some reason it only hit Dutch shores like last month or something. Okay, so there you have some history.
On to the music, stop stalling. ‘Destroy What You Enjoy’ starts with the title track (not accounting the opening skit as a song): a mid-paced rock song, which is kind of predictable, but no less alright. And that about sums up the album: catchy, melodic, sometimes punky rock `n roll, with a whole bunch of hooks and sing along moments.

Really, I found myself tapping like a dimwit and smiling like a stupid idiot through a lot of the songs. The album sounds jolly like that and the insane catchiness gets you.
Whether you like it or not, this album is fun. Some songs are even kind of funny. Like with ‘Enemies’, Spider One (why that name…) says between lines ‘whatever’ and ends with a tongue sound kids often make to mock people, then concludes with: ‘The end’, and there’s some out of tune guitar sounds as if they decided to quit in the middle of the song; priceless.
Two songs deserve sidenoting. ‘Wild World’ is just so catchy you can’t help but like the hell out of it. Riffs with a higher note played over it in the bridge and some really smart guitar sounds going on everywhere. They make it even more catchy and likeable. ‘Wild World’ is as formulaic as any big Hollywood sports movie. You know: ‘washed up has-been goes on to coach a bunch of idiots, and against all odds, what do you know? They fucking make it and win a big ass trophy. Es un miraculo!’ But those movies will always be made, because they work, and we want them to be predictable.
Then there’s ‘Miss America’, which just plain sucks. Okay? Okay.

Powerman 5000 has made an insanely likeable, varied but predictable, very good, straightforward rock ‘n roll album with ‘Destroy What You Enjoy’. PM5K is like a puppy: you might be all distant at first, wanting not to like it, but of course you’ll like the hell out of the puppy after a while. Maybe this album is even to be called ‘cute’? Oh come on, don’t push it, that’s bullshit.
In the aforementioned prior version, the last sentences of this review would’ve been: ‘This album is not something to enjoy, however, destroying it does seem like the right thing to do. But no, it’s too much trouble, just let the dust handle it.’ But, none of that. This album may just enjoy an elongated run amongst my ‘frequent play’ CD’s. It is just so enjoyable. Damn you, Powerman 5000!