by Stewart Mason98 Mute's debut album is strictly by the numbers mid-'90s pop-punk, less poppy than the likes of blink-182 and Sum 41 and strongly reminiscent of their fellow South Bay California beach punks Pennywise. With 14 barely two-minute blasts of fairly melodic punk, 98 Mute works on the simplest of levels -- basically, it doesn't suck -- but these songs are so anonymous and lightweight in every possible way, from the clichéd lyrics to singer Pat's personality-free voice to the colorless blur of the simple ramalama tunes, that it's impossible to work up much more than a passing interest in the album. Impossible to work up much enthusiasm about either for or against, 98 Mute is, at heart, a completely generic album, as blah and uninteresting as a similar album by some third-string boy band from the same era.