- Bodyjar grew out of the nineties, an era of grungy angst, lost boy guitarists and mainstream rebellion, a world where anger was in and the walls between pop and punk were crumbling daily. After two decades, a dozen releases, roster changes, dissolution, reformation and an eight year hiatus, their latest release is a perfectly serviceable vehicle that shows growing up doesn't mean you have to change and why that’s not such a good thing.

If this was 1998, you wouldn’t be able to find a finer example of tightly tuned and slickly produced Aussie punk rock; thirteen songs, polished to a blinding sheen, rhythmic and rollingly kinetic, all seamlessly blended and tailored to fit. But things are different now and Role Model doesn’t set a great example for the times, doing little more than colouring between the lines of an out of date standard.

The opening track, Petty Problems, shares many of the genetic hooks bred into their 2001 hit Not the Same, though rather than reminiscence it comes across as more of a slap-headed warning, like listening to a family history of heart disease while you suck the marrow from a bone.

Sadly, there are a handful of almost moments, frustrating glimpses of something more than the slightly bland metallic taste of manufacture present throughout the rest of its body. There are hints of potential here that fade back into the familiar before they can take hold and unfortunately before they can have any real impact.

Late in the album, somewhere in the depths of Natural Selection, lies an element of rebellion, an eager hardcore ethos living quietly at the back end of the track, a screaming detour into far more interesting territory, a foray lasting for all of a minute, only long enough to highlight the mundanity lurking everywhere else.

Thankfully, there is a commendable pace to the tracks on offer, with the whole adhering to a snappy pop-punk standard that sees most of the songs maxing out at around three minutes. The whole thing is mercifully brief, giving you just enough time to mourn your adolescence before it’s over and you can find something better to do.

This is what happens when age shaves the edges from the fury of the young.

- Nic Addenbrooke.