Review Summary: A cover album isn’t always necessarily bad. Except for when it’s filled with overplayed songs that aren’t creative or lack of freshness, it turns out to be.
When the idea comes up of a full cover album versus another full length for your favorite band it could be displeasing. When you consider this is Four Year Strong’s second “full length”, the fact that it is a cover album makes it mind-numbing. The second part of the fact is that they decided to cover songs from the 90’s. Now I grew up in the 90’s so naturally I love it but they decided to cover a handful of the most mainstream songs they could (per a few that aren’t that popular). They did this to help declare their love for the 90’s. Stating their love for pogs, bowl cuts, JNCO jeans, Full House, Airwalks and The Mighty Ducks, doesn’t make this an excuse for a cover album. What they should’ve considered doing was just throwing in some covers on an actual full length inside of all in one album.
One thing they did semi-right was to incorporate somewhat different genres. They ranged it from alternative rock, pop rock, pop punk, power pop, ska and even some grunge. Four Year Strong’s rendition of “So Much For The Afterglow” does literally nothing for it. It’s not inventive, new or fresh. It sounds almost identical to Everclear’s version. Being that Four Year Strong is branded as a sort melodic hardcore with the likes of Set Your Goals and A Day To Remember, I really expected this be more hardcore than it was. There was very little yelling and no obvious screaming what so ever. Alright so “Absolutely (Story Of A Girl) wasn’t even released in the 90’s. It was released 3 days into the new millennium on January 3rd, 2000. With that being said I also think it was one of the most annoying songs of that era anyways.
The interpretation of “Ironic” on this record is actually pretty good. It sounds more like Four Year Strong should, less pop and more punk. The yelling of the chorus really sets this aside from the original and is one the top songs on the album. “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” is one of my all time favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs so I was pleased to see this on the album. As sinister and angry as this song is, FYS still is able to pull it off. Of course it doesn’t come close to competing with the Smashing Pumpkins version but everything seems to be pretty spot on with the guitar playing and even Dan and Alan’s vocals are great. Now somewhere in there supposedly a guest performance by Keith Buckley from Every Time I Die but the only place I can possibly hear it is the last part where Billy would normally scream “just a rat in a cage.”
I’d rather listen to Third Eye Blind’s version of “Semi-Charmed Life” before FYS’s version any day. Their decision to cover No Doubt’s “Spiderwebs” was probably the best one for this scheme. Being the close relation of musical genres there was less chance for it to backfire in the end. It didn’t backfire, it’s actually decent. Since I’m not a big No Doubt fan I might have to say I like this song better sung by FYS. “Roll To Me” is as mediocre as most of the songs on this album and most covers of 90’s songs altogether. “Fly” is one the songs that my teenage cousin of the 90’s used to blare all day everyday when I was growing up. Therefore it became very annoying, very quick. FYS’s version actually does justice to the original. It’s more punk again than Sugar Ray’s original poppy rock version of it. They had Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes to come in and perform the dancehall/reggae snippet of vocals in the song as well.
The version of “In Bloom” is pretty decent too. Of course it doesn’t sound so grungy like most of Nirvana’s work but that works out well since it is of course a cover album. This version is a bit better than the one done by So They Say for the Punk Goes 90’s album, just for the shear fact that So They Say’s version sounds a bit more grungy and heavy. I have never heard the song “She Really Loved You” before this. It sounds good but I’d have to listen to the original to comment on this one. The closer is quite the epic song. I don’t think I know anyone that doesn’t know this song or at least hasn’t heard it. They took the original of the power pop sense it brought and actually made it into a decent punk version. Now don’t get me wrong, I like the Tal Bachman version but this one just suits my musical palate better.
Now don’t forget this is a cover album. Most of the covers are decent, but not outstanding. They are mostly songs that have been covered or will be covered by local, jam and small time bands. Next time you want to make a tribute album to an era, pick some songs that aren’t so overplayed and choose a few that were really groundbreaking then. It would have been nice to see some more grunge, alternative rock and maybe FYS’s attempt at re-creating something heavier like Nine Inch Nails or some Chili Peppers. It’s just a cover album, so it’s nothing special. It’s got its highs and lows but in the end you must remember it wasn’t them who created such hits, it was their serious craving to play them for us. Was it a good choice to do this inside of another full length? Probably not but that is what their prerogative was. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an actual studio album of original music sometime in 2010 for FYS.
