The Toasters are at their best when skanking hard and fast, and they do little of that on Don’t Let The Bastards Grind You Down. There are a few fairly driving tracks on this album – notably “Devil And A .45”, “Don’t Let The Bastards Grind You Down”, “Rude, Rude, Baby”, “Underground Town”, and “Weekend In L. A.”, but while all are good, only the last two rise to the level of some of the best tracks on the band’s previous album, Hard Band For Dead. There are also several interesting mid-tempo tracks: “I’m Running Right Through The World”, “Daddy Cry”, “Everything You Said Has Been A Lie”, and the stop-time blues of “Rude, Rude Baby”. The rest of the expansive album (17 tracks in all) is devoted to mid or slow-tempo mostly instrumental pieces, which are ok as filler but not ultimately very interesting. Despite a few great songs and several good ones, this album is a disappointment.