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What do you expect from teenage punks peddling music about the already torn subject of love and what it feels like to be hurt, bulldozed and crushed by your loved one? Absolutely nothing. Listening to the same old whiny music with bits and pieces of MXPX or The All American Rejects and a nod to three chord aesthetics almost lets you grow fish scales in your ears. It’s almost exhausting, really. Almost everyday, radio and music channels are serving you the familiar meal on your platter, the recycled Total Request Live-approved punk your stupid classmates have been praising all these years. It’s like pegging whiny teenybopper pop-punk to be the next rock. And to express utter disgust over such fallacious and adverse labeling, you urgently insert The Clash’s London Calling on the playlist or any song from Black Flag and The Dead Kennedys, for an hour of real punk rock and possibly REAL ROCK MUSIC. I have nothing against bands playing pop-punk bordering on emo and silly suicidal music, it’s just that most of them producing the same ilk lack the flair to write mature songs or even try hard to reinvent their music.

So when my cousin hand-over me a copy of three-piece band Cover Me Quick’s sophomore effort, Mga Kantang Galing Sa Loob ng Kuwarto Ko – I already have hints of what it would openly offer in the outer field: angsty pop-punk (read: Sum 41, American Hi Fi or maybe some Dashboard Confessional), with a three or two acoustic/slow song contribution and with lots and lots of toilet bowl-constipated singing on a menace of crunchy riffs and panicky drumbeats. Since the album title Mga Kantang Galing Sa Loob ng Kuwarto (translated as Songs from my room) suggests something that’s private and reflective – probably a collection of anecdotal pieces on experiences and personal intimacies -- the album might have a sore and even bare response of a journal, only written in a virile perspective by an adolescent guy who thinks smoking is ultra-cool just like those kids in Rob Reiner’s 80’s flick Stand by Me and nailing them chicks in bed, a biblical testament of clinically tested, male machismo.

And all else fit the description. The moment “Ayoko na” jolts in aggression and immediacy, its cramped energy boozing a lot of screaming and whining about the struggles of teenage life (immaturity, alcohol, drugs, chicks) – you already know what’s going to happen – a succession of riotous songs about adolescent love and angst played in almost same chord patterns, similarly veined pace and occasional flat notes gangbanged here and there: the girl-confide-in-my-arms of “Tanya,” whose absurd rhymes seemed to be forcibly dragged (“Tanya…Tanya…sabihin mo kung ayaw mo na, ipapabugbog natin siya…tang’na niya”), the story of unexpected sexual trysts and betrayal on “Biglang Liko” and the break-up song, “Ang Huling Kantang Gagawin ko para sa’yo,” all following a linear identity, like a very long and draining song (I’d rather listen to R. Kelly’s 12-minuter Trapped in the Closet and not get bored) with four short but connected themes that run out of steam because of its topical tackiness and usual teenage-issue gist.

Upon reaching the middle part of the album, Cover Me Quick’s Mga Kantang Galing Sa Loob ng Kuwarto reaches the peak and most probably its major strengths being quarried at long last. “Kung Gusto mo Maraming Paraan, Kung Ayaw mo Maraming Dahilan,” is acousticky Jack Johnson sweetened into what passes off as Parokya Ni Edgar-emotive pop tune that casts sheer joy. “Fifteen minutes,” with its downer vocals turning into messy chorus – is forgivable since it isn’t something reminiscent of the first few tracks and it’s strategically located in-between the two delicately good tunes in the album. The highlight belongs however to the charming “Gabi ng Prom,” which starts off with a calm acoustic guitar and a toned down but expressive singing then metamorphosing into head banging, mosh-punk bedlam that brings the seemingly off-dress code ‘punks’ jostling on the center stage of the prom ball, with romantic music sweeping off their feet – definitely a memorable and fantastic night to remember. “Sabihin mo na lang” ends the prolonged ecstasy, but with rude and bastardized guitar riffs swirling nearly at its tail end and its last minute – a chunk of surprisingly britpop influences with a dense showcase of in-your-face guitar splatter to the canvass before the song hits its final post. As the record reaches its finishing mark, things turn into dissatisfaction. The two remaining tracks “A Billion” and finale “Lagi kang Tama” obviously are just clones of their previous songs, and doesn’t hold any guarantee of fastening effect to the memory.

 CMQ can get away with half the bad as bull tracks and could’ve tightened a little here and there. But what can I expect from the same shoe-in music I’ve been hearing over and over again? Absolutely nothing.