The Donnas - Turn 21 (2001)

Eight years and four albums down the line from their California inception at the relatively tender age of 13, and the artists formerly known as the Electrocutes and Raggedy Ann have forged an evocative style of razor-edged, good-time rock & roll that positively redefines exuberance. The onset of musical maturity has seen the Donnas honing their melodic and harmonic chops, while steadily moving away from their undeniably seductive yet irrefutably restrictive Ramones-clone roots to embrace the dynamic metal manners of a roughshod Joan Jett or a punked-up AC/DC. The sneering, ennui-soaked vocals of Donna A. leave the stylistic frills to Donna R.'s guitar. And as Donnas C. and F. provide a rock-solid rhythmic backdrop, the combined effect is so gloriously visceral, slack-jawed, and entirely bereft of affectation and contrivance, that even an irony-free cover of Judas Priest's "Livin' After Midnight" seems to make some kind of mosh-hastening good sense. --Billy Fisher