Zachary Hertz (ZH): For our JumboCash-only readers, we’re reviewing oven-reheated mozzarella sticks from Tufts’ own Commons Marketplace. The album title could also describe the people in this room — Good Charlotte’s “The Young and the Hopeless” (2002). And our young and hopeless guest, Petrina Chan, loves birds and eating shaved Parmesan out of a tub over her sink, especially on weekends.
Brady Shea (BS): I never realized how old this album is — I listened to it in middle school, seven years after it came out.
ZH: It starts strong with “A New Beginning”— it’s super orchestral.
Petrina Chan (PC): It sounds like the beginning of a movie and after the bass kicks in it’s like the beginning of 90s show with a misunderstood teen boy in his room jamming on a guitar.
BS: The only thing I can say about “The Anthem” is that it’s such an anthem.
PC: It’s timeless, never fails to get me hyped up and I made [Amazon] Alexa play it 20 times on the Fourth of July. I think the whole apartment complex could hear me.
ZH: I never realized it goes straight into “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” That song is great because it taps into the classic pop punk anger with the establishment.
BS: Definitely one of the original songs of that type. Its simple melody and riffs make the message stick.
PC: I like the sudden mellowing out here [in “The Story of My Old Man”]. It’s like a smooth ballad in the middle of a jam.
ZH: And now some smooth cheese in the middle of these pop punk jams. Thoughts?
BS: Better than Pizza Days, by far. The breading isn’t as good as Pinky’s, though.
PC: It’s smooth, like a corndog. They’re also girth-y but really expensive. I’m not surprised but I thought it’d be more like $3.50, not $5. That's like a dollar per stick.
ZH: They’re a good food, but not quite real mozzarella sticks. Something about them is off.
PC: I always thought they were weird! They’re square! They have a good amount of cheese though.
BS: In comparison to the other ones, 7.5/10.
PC: I’d agree — good but atypical.
ZH: Honestly it’s a straight 7/10 from me: good but not special.
BS: It’s funny that the title song is way less known than “The Anthem” or “Lifestyles.” They intended it to carry the album but other songs ended up making the album famous anyway.
PC: Do you think they knew “The Anthem” was going to slap when they wrote it?
BS: I mean, in the chorus, “This is the anthem, throw all your hands up,” I think they knew.
PC: Overall, the album has a surprising amount of variety. Usually when I listen to albums, there’s a song that I dislike but here I could jam to any of them. I’d give it a 7/10.
ZH: Yeah I’d have to agree — all good but only two stood out.
BS: When you first suggested it I was like, “Why?” but I’ve remembered why I played it to death in middle school. 8/10 from me.
Cheeses of Suburbia: The young and the stickless
