Punk goes pop volume two

And to think that Fearless Records was, ten years ago, At The Drive-In's label. Hard to believe when we see today's label productions. With signed bands as trivial as the post-hardcore-esque Alesana and the latest Motionless In White or ridiculously cheesy pop-punk as Every Avenue and The Maine, the Californian label uses the current trends more than they beat on originality and risk-taking. It's proved again with this compilation.
The 'Punk goes...' series had quite good vintages though, as 'Punk goes acoustic' for example that gathered on its tracklisting as great and varied names as those of Thursday, Coalesce, Strike Anywhere or Open Hand. Then followed 'Punk goes pop', 'Punk goes 80's', 'Punk goes 90's', 'Punk goes acoustic 2', 'Punk goes crunk' and this month comes out 'Punk goes pop volume two'. And the least we can say is that the simple reading of the tracklisting will push more than one away. Take fourteen upcoming bands on the pop-punk/alternative rock/post-hardcore actual scene (roughly, those whose MySpace pages are the most visited and secondarily the most polished) and ask them to cover fourteen songs that made the glorious days of the most popular radio stations in those last ten years. Once again, it's better not to trust the title of the compilation (if Breathe Carolina sound punk, Refused were the greatest R&B band in the world).

The impression that comes out while listening to the album is that it's ridiculously easy to make a cover these days. There are those who content themselves with making exactly the same song with guitars and drums like Mayday Parade with the unbearable 'When I grow up' of the Pussycat Dolls, those who add to the clear singing some easy and worth no interest screamed parts (Silverstein with One Republic's 'Apologize', A Static Lullaby with Britney Spears's 'Toxic') or even those who find judicious to growl on some Justin Timberlake (Alesana) or, her again, Britney Spears (August Burns Red). The listening of those tracks is disconcerting due to the impression we get that we could do the same without much effort.
But there's even worse. There are those which listening of the song until the end requires a steel will. As if this compilation was missing Auto-Tune, Breathe Carolina give us the pleasure to suffocate us with vocoder and terribly clumsy dance beats. If you manage to appreciate this song, you must inevitably be an absolute fan not only of the band, but also of the pain Miley Cyrus which they had the good taste of covering a hit. In the same vein, 'I kissed a girl' in an electro/screamo version by Attack Attack! is completely unlistenable and almost encourages us to apologize to Katy Perry.

Admittedly, there are those who tried to appropriate the song by making adjustments. Escape The Fate's drummer, when he justified their choice of cover, declared that they "didn't want to do something cliché, that we've already heard, like making the song faster, adding a breakdown or screaming the chorus". Hard not to think of his collegues' participations hearing this. Be that as it may, the rockstars they are chose the very sexy 'Smooth' of Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas. Certainly, the covering work is a little more careful, but it doesn't really work. The same is true for The Cab who added keyboard, vocoder and a guitar solo to Rihanna's 'Disturbia' without succeeding in convincing (the bands A Cursive Memory and above all The Sequence also attempted to take this same song and managed to it better, their versions can be listened on their respective MySpace) and for There For Tomorrow and the dance side brought to their cover of the R&B singer Omarion.
The three tracks that stand out from the crowd are those of Chiodos, A Day To Remember and Four Year Strong. The first distinguish themselves by the originality of their cover's choice ('Flagpole Sitta', Harvey Danger's 1998 hit) and the two others make their respective versions of 'Over my head' (The Fray) and 'Love song' (Sara Bareilles) sound a little in the same way, with the difference that we would like more clear vocals for the first and less for the second. The three bands make the song theirs well, Chiodos surprise by the musical freshness of their track despite Craig Owen's annoying howls on the end, A Day To Remember give a good energy to The Fray's yet honeyed chorus and Four Year Strong's usual gang vocals and double voice make 'Love song' sound like a 'Rise or die tryin' ' b-side. Bayside also shape up quite well with their version of 'Beautiful girls' and if it doesn't make us jump for joy, it's probably because of the original's creator, Sean Kingston.

At the hands of the acerbic critics that will with no doubt hit this compilation's creators, the answers will probably be centred on the fact that the album only has an entertaining purpose. Nothing serious okay, but if the bands will claim having made their covers "for fun", we will be able to reply to them that in the end we hardly find it. Quite the contrary, it's too often an ordeal for the eardrums. The majority of the songs' choices are not sensible, how to make people like a cover of a song that is initially dreadful? Aren't we subjected enough to the media hype around the global stars that are Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus to have to hear bands from our scene covering their songs? I besides thank them for inserting those names on my blog, I will probably soon have visits from Disney Channel club members. Those thongs are not even guilty pleasures, they are tracks we hear all day long and that we would like not to have to suffer from the listening anymore. What did Silverstein think covering 'Apologize', song heard a thousand times by every human being owning a television or a radio?
We yet have to expect the covers of this album stinking neon and Auto-Tune to land up as hundreds of MySpace pages' musical background from their release. It's not shameful anymore to like ultra-sugary pop served by MTV since the bands in vogue cover it to their liking. It has become a real trend for those desiring to be famous to post their hit of the moment's version online. Surefire buzz. It's however not sure that someone will remember a single one of those covers in three years.
When this passion for listening to heavy-edited R&B or pop-punk-edited dance will be done, Fearless will be forced to find something else and to turn to creative and interest-worthy projects. Me First And The Gimme Gimmes may sometimes choose to cover even worse songs, at least it's funny.

2/5

Recommanded if you like:
Forever The Sickest Kids, Cobra Starship, Brokencyde
Check also:
I Set My Friends On Fire, Watchout! There's Ghosts, Cash Cash

www.myspace.com/punkgoespop2
(Fearless Records, 2009)