Black Flag did indeed have a less serious side to them, as if to temper their anthems like "Rise Above," their confrontational songs like "Police Story," and their numerous forays into manic depression and dire agony ("Depression," "Thirsty and Miserable," "Damaged," etc.). Like cartoons at a horror movie festival, the tracks compiled on this posthumous LP worked as comic relief, a catharsis of sorts, and not surprisingly some of this was the best
Black Flag stuff, like the ode to drunkenness "Six Pack," the reveling-in-media babysitting "T.V. Party," the hilarious slaughter of "Louie, Louie" that would make the
Metallic KO Stooges proud, and the nuts-on-parade of "Wasted," had it been released in the late '50s. A pretty smart release, as opposed to the usual post-breakup greatest-hits LP; this will change the minds of so many who persisted in thinking of
Black Flag as a one-dimensional, Armageddon-is-coming nihilist hardcore act, or one bereft of brains or humor.
Wasted...Again is the work of tuned-in societal satirists, and along with the
Everything Went Black document, is their most pleasing LP. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover
