Album Review- Swami John Reis- Time To Let You Down

Looking back, I spent a lot of time listening to Rocket from the Crypt in the 1990s. 

Though he retired that band in 2005, John Reis has stayed plenty busy since. He came back into my radar in 2015 when he teamed up with Minneapolis punks The Blind Shake for the appropriately named Modern Surf Classics. Even as Reis has been busy with multiple bands, I have been most impressed with his solo career which kicked off with 2022s Ride the Wild Night. A mix of Nuggets garage rock meeting Classic Ramones style punk, it’s as good as anything RFTC had done. 

 2023s All of this Awaits You follows most of the same piece with some jarring topics- Harbor Freight tools, bananas and sandwich condiments. It shouldn’t be surprising that 2025s Time to Let You Down is more of the same. 

While new listeners may rank these three newest Reis albums in any order, I do find the third the weakest of the three. That said, it also rocks harder than the previous discs. 

Modern listeners will probably make a playlist of their favorite songs anyway which is fine when their are catchy number here like Boomer Rang. 

 Released eight months after his last album, it was preceded by single Fed to The Dogs which has Iggyish raw power. If you like classic punk with more goofiness than politics like the Dickies or the Didjits, it’s right here.