The Accelerators - 'My Baby is an Undertaker'

Hailing from the Netherlands, pop punk quartet the Accelerators show a fine appreciation of American music. Flecks of Ramones, Screeching Weasel, Descendents, and the Queers crop up in their four-song seven-inch, My Baby is an Undertaker. The style is surely one of those World Wonders by now – unchanging, monolithic – but the band does the genre proud.

How the title track never ended up being an actual Ramones song, I’ll never know. Musically, it’s right there. It’s the lyrics that clinch it, though, as bouncy rhythms score a tale about dating an undertaker. The chorus is the title. It’s kitschy enough to fall right in there with “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” and “Pet Cemetery,” but not so over the top that it comes out like a Nekromantix tune. Nobody needs that. “The Night Feels So Much Better Than the Day,” a Centerfolds cover, follows with guest spots from members of Retarded, Apers and Zatopeks.

The flipside’s songs, “The Rain” and “Burning Bridges,” up the adrenaline a bit, but the band already knocked out their strongest track with “My Baby is an Undertaker.” Everything else is just a victory lap. While the Accelerators don’t reinvent the genre – who could? – they still have fun with it, and hopefully so will listeners.