Review Summary: If you expected anything different this time…
The abomination that is the
Punk Goes… series has been going strong for seventeen years now, starting with the
…Metal iteration, and steadily declining over time. What initially started out as a way for bands to get their name out by covering relatively popular songs has devolved into a yearly outing filled with poor songs covered even more poorly. The
…Pop series has by far been the most successful, for better or for worse. Although some decent covers have come out over the years, they’re quickly overshadowed by the worst the compilations have to offer. It comes as no surprise, then, that the seventh installment of the
Punk Goes Pop series provides some of the worst covers to come out of the series and continually reassures those who even begin to think that the series will ever be worthwhile that it will remain merely as a cash-grab.
A consistent problem with the series is that bands stick to their sound regardless of the song at hand, and even if they do tend to deviate, the cover falls incredibly flat and doesn’t maintain the catchy elements the originals possess. Both ‘Stiches’ and ‘Gangsta’ from
State Champs and
New Years Day respectively focus too much on their ‘signature’ sounds and result in the songs sounding like a poorly made single from both artists. Further along, ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ from
The Amity Affliction is a slow, uneventful cover that attempts to mix
Amity elements but lacks anything spectacular to draw the listener in, and mixes both vocalists terribly into the song; clean vocalist Ahren still sounds as bored and pitch-corrected as he did on their most recent outing, and harsh vocalist Joel’s inclusion feels terribly forced and destroys what little resemblance of the original track remained. Elsewhere, ‘When We Were Young’ from
Andy Black is practically a carbon copy of the original from Adele with rock elements spliced throughout, and ‘Shape of You’ from
Eat Your Heart Out still sounds like ‘No Scrubs’ and vocalist Caitlin Henry provides an extremely flat performance.
It also doesn’t particularly help when the source material is awful to begin with. ‘I Don’t Wanna Live Forever’ from
Ice Nine Kills sounds incredibly awkward mixed with a low-quality alt-rock song, and although
Seaway try their best to spin ‘Closer’ as a heartfelt song, their slow rendition does little to sway the listener that the song can’t be saved from the depths it began in. Despite this, every year the albums tend to have a few decent covers, and this year is no different. Although ‘That’s What I Like’ from
Dance Gavin Dance sounds like a poor-mans DGD song, however it works well as a cover in its ability to mix both the original and their signature sound. ‘Let It Go’ from
The Plot In You further proves that Landon Tewers can nail any sound he’s given, even if the song does tend to move incredibly slow, and closer ‘In the Name of Love’ by
Too Close To Touch sounds exactly like something they’d release, but works excellently due to an ever-consistent performance from vocalist Keaton Pierce.
Despite some decent performances this year, the source material the bands are working with is the lowest quality it has been in quite a while. In previous years, artists were given seemingly more options, as the albums tended to drift in-between recent songs as well as older or more ‘classic’ songs. This year, however, proves once again that the
Punk Goes Pop series is nothing more than a cash-grab for eager fans awaiting new content from their favourite bands. With some of the worst covers the series has seen, and no definitive cover to grab from the album, it’s hard to look at the series as nothing more than Fearless Records cashing in.
1.8/5
Seek Out: That’s What I Like, In the Name of Love
Avoid: Can’t Feel My Face, Eat Your Heart Out
