By Tony Clark (April 3, 2003)

Simple Plan recently sent Lasso Online a sample CD of their music. After listening to it, I fear for generations to come and what they will have to listen to. The CD is called "No Pads, No Helmet…Just Balls." This title has nothing to do with any of the songs on the CD so I believe they just think it sounds cool. I am telling you this right now, there is no real musical value in this CD, it is just noise.

The CD sounds just like its name, simple. The first thing I noticed when flipping through the songs was that tracks two and three sound exactly alike. Not that this is bad, it just doesn’t show much diversity. The CD is like any other one you might hear or see on MTV. Simple Plan sells to middle school-aged kids that think that they are really cool when they listen to this catchy music. This is one thing about this CD, there are some catchy songs, but don’t confuse this with my saying that they are good songs.These songs can be heard without even listening to this band. You could listen to such bands as Sum 41 and Blink 182 and hear the exact same thing.

Most of the lyrics are aimed towards young teens who like to hear about twenty year old guys singing about lost loves while they were in high school. They sell an image, nothing more. "I heard you're doing okay, But I want you to know, I'm a (deleted). I'm addicted to you, I can't pretend I don't care, When you don't think about me, Do you think I deserve this?" They have a nice little play on words with the deleted word which rhymes with addicted, but other than that they are just whining. 

The names of the songs also need some help. Such songs as "You Don’t Mean Anything" and "When I’m with You" are all too plain. Isn’t there a better way they could have worded these really deep and meaningful songs?

The album went gold in Canada and Japan and all I can say is that I hope Americans have a better taste in music so that doesn’t happen here. The CD brings nothing to the table, leaving me not much to write about. I do not advise any one to buy the CD or download the music. Simple Plan is just another want-to-be teen pop sensation.