Is Gordon Gano destined to remain forever the geek of the class? Judging by the songs on Freak Magnet (some of which date back as far as 1985) it would appear so. At their best, the Femmes marry B-52s' quirkiness to the Ramones' cartoon punk with rather endearing, and catchy, results. At their worst though, they are a musically limited, lyrically puerile collective who would have been better off calling it a day back in the mid-'80s.

The opening 'Hollywood Is High' is enjoyable enough, and is typical of their punkabilly heyday, while 'Sleepwalkin'' contains a vibrancy the band seem to

have lost of late, as does the toe-tapping 'I Danced Before I Had Two Feet'. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from

there.

'Rejoice And Be Happy' sees Gano's deeply Christian beliefs coming to the fore, with enough religious imagery for a Charlton Heston epic or a Monthy Python double-bill: "Blessed are you who are persecuted too/For righteousness and the good that you do". 'Forbidden' is also full of quasi-religious phrasing, this time juxtaposed with sub-Beach Boysian saccharine harmonies, which makes for an an eerie, unsettlling three minutes.

If it's weird and sinister you're after though, you can't get much stranger than the closing 'A Story', a bizarre B-movie of the mind, where would-be teenage lovers are eaten alive by the "monster of the interestate" amid all manner of disturbing sound FX.

When they first surfaced from the Milwaukee sunshine with a sense of humour and a three-chord trick, Violent Femmes were a breath of fresh air. On the evidence of Freak Magnet, though, it seems their blister (in the sun) has long since burst.