**1/2 H2O

F.T.T.W.

(Epitaph)

The first eight hooky tracks on H20's F.T.T.W. are the punk equivalent of a six-hour therapy session -- it doesn't matter that your girlfriend took off, you can't pay the rent, and there are a lot of people who want to kick your ass, because you've got a sensitive-bad-ass band from NYC waiting with open arms to give you a hardcore hug. Of course, all that emotional bloodletting is a little draining, so you'd rather take a nap than listen to the disc's next 10 tracks. Said tracks just buzz by in tight, heartfelt bursts -- chants echo, old-school hardcore riffs snap, and tiny guitar melodies squiggle -- but you're already sawing wood. Which is a shame, because taken in small jolts of two or three tracks at a time, F.T.T.W. is good medicine.

-- Lorne Behrman