"Acoustic folk punk very much in the vein of the Violent Femmes. Catchy, and well done for a self-produced effort." link
"I'm very impressed. Rarely do we get in a release that was self-produced that sounds this good... The sound is best described as acoustical pop-punk. Brendan's vocals have a classic snotty pop-punk air to them and help propel the catchiness of the tunes as the songs chug along. My two favorites are "Getting to No" and "Broken". I feel a lot of people are going to start to pay attention to this band in the future." link
"First there’s the lyrics. “Just because I genuflect doesn’t mean you have respect.” No, don’t ask me if I’m sure I know what it means. Just sounds really cool when he sings it. But, better than that. It really sounds like he’s dribbling a basketball back and forth between his hands as he’s singing. Really. Now, that’s cool. Never heard that done before, and I have respect for that. A bit into the song there is a guitar entering, but the ball still dribbles. Then, we’re back to the lyrics. “We were chained together by the things inside that let us fly.” Catchy enough to make me think it’d deeper than it probably is. Okay, picture the scene by the pool, and he sings: “You keep standing more erect, you have a steel rod in your neck.” There’s a lotta things happening in this song, and it bears up to repeated listening and contemplation. A+ in eartaste’s view. Shoutouts for Second Brain and Blindfold." link
"The excellently-crafted lyrics surprise the listener like an unplanned pregnancy." link
"The record is not going to blow your mind with originality, but it will certainly entertain you. It's full of driving guitar riffs and the subtle sneer of Brendan's voice works well. Unlike a lot of folk artists, The Karmic Whiplash believes in brevity. The songs show up, make a point and never stay too long (only two songs break the three minute mark)." link
"Overall, The Nervous System is a quick, enjoyable ten-song folk-rock album with enough creativity, edge, pop and variety to keep it interesting all the way through." link
"What’s cool about Karmic Whiplash is that it isn’t typical singer-songwriter fare; Themes wears his punk roots on his sleeve, penning melodic up-tempo tracks that sound somewhere between the Violent Femmes and, at best, an unplugged version of the Descendants." link
"If you enjoy clever lyrics, the album really deserves two listens to pick up on some of the "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" witty gems." link