Album Review: Vertically Unchallenged Baby by W.O.R.M. by Mick from Just Some Punk Songs

Mick Fletcher from justsomepunksong.blogspot.co.uk was kind enough to review one of his favourite albums for me.

W.O.R.M. are a punk band who emerged from "a grubby cellar near Chesterfield" in 1992 who's members were previously in bands such as Corpse Grinders, Bunny Heads and Inspiral Cowpats. They released a couple of albums (BillyNoMates, Mullet In The Head) which escaped my attention but by the time they released album number 3 they were well on my radar. 

A drunken night out in Lancaster ended with me in a room above a town centre pub to check out a band I'd not heard of previously called W.O.R.M. Rather pleasingly they were excellent, short, snappy and irreverent pop punk ditties with plenty of witty banter courtesy of frontman/bassist Danny. They've had numerous line up changes down the years but the line up that night also featured long term drummer Mark as well as guitarists Carl and Andy. This was also the line up which recorded that third album, Vertically Unchallenged Baby. The fiver I spent snapping the CD up was definitely money well spent. 

With a garishly coloured cover featuring a hyper active looking one toothed toddler in a nappy and yellow vest, it's an album that is often overlooked when classics from yesteryear are discussed. Chock full of pop punk gems, only one of which exceeds the 3 minute mark, it's fast, fun and a true delight. 

Kicking off with a relatively serious song called False World Order (with its repetitive "I don't think that the world's real at all" chanted outro) it blasts through tales of exceedingly tall girlfriends, brainwashed monkeys and how you're likely to get laughed at when you've got bright green hair. There's Danny's insistence that he doesn't want to be part of someone's shitty scene and a longing reminiscence for times gone by, but it's not long before they're regaling us with another stupid song ("NA NA NA NA NA NA NA!"). 

Not sure why they were never more popular, it certainly wasn't due to a lack of touring. Maybe they didn't take themselves seriously enough and were happy just to have a good time. They're definitely firm favourites of mine though. 

2008 saw them release album number 4, If You Can't See The Truth, You're Not Looking which was another belter. You can get all their back catalogue (including a free download of the remastered Vertically Unchallenged Baby) over on their Bandcamp page : http://worm2.bandcamp.com/