"To be successful at covering a song, a band has to tap into a song that is either inherently great (for example: Shai Hulud's cover of NOFX's "Linoleum"), or can be molded to be great by reinterpreting it using the idiosyncratic qualities of the particular band covering that moldable song (for example: any song covered by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes). Some songs and bands just can't mix like Throwdown and "Baby Got Back." Sure, results can be humorous, but they definitely aren't good." [url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review_7580]-DFelon204409[/url]
There are three "typical" types of cover albums. One is where one band covers songs by multiple artists such as "Garage Inc.". A second is where multiple bands will pay tribute to one artist and cover only their songs, like "Killer Queen". Then there is the one where multiple bands cover multiple artists with a specific subject about the cover album. Enter the Punk Goes compilations. There have been several of these so far including Punk Goes Disco, Punk Goes Acoustic, and Punk Goes 80s. Now the latest release of the cover compilation series is Punk Goes 90s, where fifteen bands cover some of their "favorite" songs from the nineties.
As an interesting way to start out Mae opens the compilation up with a cover of Nine Inch Nails"
"March of the Pigs". With a completely contrasting band and song it would at least be necessary to listen to the song. It"s just a shame that Mae sounds more like Nine Inch Nails then they do themselves, but at least the vocals are different enough to make the heavy industrial song unique compared to half the songs here. It"s not all fun though. The worst cover here is probably Eighteen Visions "cover" of Marilyn Manson"s
"Beautiful People". The song is exactly the same as the original and Eighteen Visions" singer sings it the exact same way. The only thing done differently is the last ten seconds where "the beautiful people" is screamed repeatedly and the guitars being slightly more distorted. If there had been one thing I was expecting to see on a cover compilation it would certainly be at least one of two songs that seemingly almost
everyone is doing a cover of. Either "Mad World" by Faith No More or "Enjoy the Silence" originally by Depeche Mode.
Anberlin takes up
"Enjoy The Silence" and do it in a way that is not memorable at all by doing the song the exact way it was written. The fact that it"s a classic song already is why I enjoy it. So They Say are now my heroes as they actually make an initially bad song good. They cover Nirvana"s
"In Bloom". The guitar in the main riff is the same, but doors are wide open for anything to happen when that"s not going around. The song itself is a lot more jumpy and upbeat with the vocals being really fun to hear. It"s a huge surprise for me to say this because of all the original songs on here I dislike this the most, but as a cover here it"s the standout. My favorite band doing a cover here is Emery and surprisingly, they do disappoint. I was expecting something great since they were covering Toad The Wet Sprocket"s
"All I Want", but what I ended up with was a choppy, boring cover that makes no attempt to be an attention grabber. The most fitting cover here that still surprised me way Gym Class Heroes' cover of RHCP classic,
"Under The Bridge" the vocals are classic GCH with a slow rap drawl that fits the song very well and the musical performance is up to par to make the Chili Peppers proud.
It"s fairly plain and easy to tell that these Punk Goes compilations are cash-ins as the effort most of these bands puts into the songs are moderately lax. Some of the pair ups are certainly interesting (i.e. Mae covering NIN and Gym Class Heroes doing RHCP), but most of the time it"s just a derivative copy of the original songs. The cover of the album itself made me reluctant to try this out and I should have gone with my gut feeling. This may be worth it for those who are into these current bands, but not familiar with the "90s" bands. Anyone who already knows of even a third of these original songs it"s in no way worth it as some of the songs are already bad in the first place. If there"s anything I"ve learned from this it"s that Nirvana were more punk than this so called "punk" compilation since they censor the naked Nirvana baby. If Kurt Cobain were alive today he"d call the people who made and distributed this a bunch of secretive pedophiles. =p
Songs to check out:
"In Bloom" (So They Say), "March of the Pigs" (Mae), and "Under the Bridge" (Gym Class Heroes)
2.5 out of 5
