Review Summary: For more or less, inconsistency is a blessing on this polarizing group of cover songs.
The Punk goes… series has always been known for producing memorable covers; whether they’re memorable out of quality or from making you burst out in uncontrollable fits of laughter completely depends on the song. This album continues that trend, delivering track after track of force-fed nostalgia to the listener; some of the bands put their own twists on the songs, some sound almost identical to the originals, and some plundered around with recording equipment like a bunch of drunken 20 something’s at an open karaoke night at three in the morning.
Several covers on here bring back that 90s feel in full swing, mostly due to their ability to keep what made the song appealing in the first place but with their own individual styles on it. The best track on this compilation without a doubt is “Torn” by Hands Like Houses, with a powerful vocal performance, an uplifting instrumental structure and nifty little guitar and bass lines, this track brings back everything that was appealing about the original. Several other bands succeed with this as well; Yellowcard incorporates their violin into their cover of “Today” quite well, Chunk! No Captain Chunk! put their energetic nature to work in their cover of “All Star” and Ice Nine Kills properly utilized their clean vocalist for a fantastic cover of “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).”
Multiple bands decided to stick close to the sound of the original, such as Get Scared on their cover of “My Own Worst Enemy” in which it sounds almost identical to the original. Motionless in White’s cover of “Du Hast” further proves that Chris Motionless can emulate just about any vocalist, for a second I thought I was listening to the original with better production. A couple bands attempted to stick close to the original sound while throwing their own style into the picture to mixed results. The best out of the tracks that attempted to do this would be Mayday Parade’s cover of “Comedown” in which the band plays off of each other quite well. Memphis May Fire’s cover of “Interstate Love Song” succeeds at this as well but to a lesser extent.
A couple covers diverged into rather unexpected territory. The Color Morale’s cover of “Everlong” was entertaining at parts such as in the well executed guitar rhythms, but they were almost unrecognizable as a band and didn’t resemble themselves or the original even remotely. The Ghost Inside’s cover of “South Town” could have well been a new song by them, they pretty much just took the arrangement and lyrics of the original and made it their own completely. Asking Alexandria’s rendition of “Closer” was polarizing, the electronics sounded cheap and unnecessary but Danny’s vocals were on top and the backing guitar line was decently catchy.
The most perplexing cover on here by far is “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Falling in Reverse, every section is an absolute enigma. The beat composition is almost identical to the original and the guitar tone is appealing, but Ronnie’s performance throughout the track is downright inconsistent. From a cringe-worthy performance in the first verse to arguably one of the best choruses on the album, this song continued to surprise. The double bass work and Ronnie’s vastly improved high screams were completely unexpected, the song is arguably both one of the best and one of the worst on the album at the same time.
All in all, with a few exceptions this is just another Punk goes… entry, and if you’re into Fearless’s compilations then this won’t disappoint. However if you’re not a fan, this won’t do much to change your mind.
The Best: “Torn”, “Du Hast”, “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).”
The Worst: “Southtown”
