Various Artists
Punk Goes Pop

Fearless Records
Release Date: April 2, 2002

Ah, the simple joys of a cover song. You’ve gotta love the idea of it. All of your favorite songs are done in a fashion that makes them new again. A song is recreated and reinterpreted by another band hopefully in a way that is similar and different at the same time. Hopefully it is similar enough to the original so that listeners can actually tell that it is a cover song so there is satisfaction in the recognition of hearing a song in a different style. It is also hoped that it is different enough from the original so that there is a new spin on the cover of a song that may have gone stale after too many years on the shelves or after too many ear-bleeding radio plays. If you are looking for a cover album that contains a combination of old stale tunes and newer overplayed hits, Fearless Records’ new gem, Punk Goes Pop is for you.

Punk Goes Pop will be released on April 2nd, 2002 in Fearless Record’s follow-up to its previous release of Punk Goes Metal and features many new rising stars in the punk rock world covering some of the greatest hits of Top 40 radio. The album dips back into the awesome eighties with Showoff’s cover of Madonna’s “Borderline” and comes as recent as Pink’s “Get This Party Started” covered by Stretch Armstrong. Current favorite female vocalists such as Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, and Mandy Moore get the royal cover treatment and even those damn boy bands get some coverage on this album as well.

Perhaps the most amazing part of this album is that almost all of the bands did put an original spin with familiarity on the songs they covered following the formula explained above. There is one exception. Element 101’s cover of Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like a Bird” is done too well. The vocals on the track could almost pass for Ms. Furtado’s chords and the music is almost an exact replica of the original score. If you are a fan of cover songs that do their best to sound like the original tune, this one will make you go gaga. As for me, it did not pass my cover tune test for it does not fit my above guidelines and this song doesn’t contain any punk sound at all.

Enough negativity, though. The rest of the artists on the album mix it up by very dramatically changing the sound of their songs. Because of this, some of the songs are hard to recognize at first unless you are keen on the lyrics – but that’s all right. The first time I heard The Starting Line cover of “I’m Real” by Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule, I didn’t even recognize the song until the band busted into the “I’m Real” refrain. At that point, I laughed my ass off at the thought of a group of punk rockers pulling off a great cover of a song that has hip-hop, salsa, and R&B influences.

While “I’m Real” was hard to recognize at first, the boy band covers were instantly obvious after hearing them a mind-numbing number of times over the past few years – not on purpose of course. Further Seems Forever speeds N’syncs’ “Bye, Bye, Bye” up into the punk rock anthem that it should have been all along. Though it’s been covered in the punk rock world by Allister before, Dynamite Boy contributes to the album with their own version of “I Want It That Way” originally sung by the Backstreet Boys. Your 13 year-old sister will hate these covers, but you will love them. If we had it our way, these covers would replace the original songs that would then be blipped from existence.

Also making appearances on the album are Knockout, with their rendition of “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child, and Keepsake’s cover of Faith Hill’s “The Way You Love Me.” Yellowcard does an even more upbeat version of Michelle Branch’s “Everywhere” that would do just as well on TRL if only they looked as good as she did.

Perhaps the best cover on the whole album is Stretch Armstrong’s cover of “Get This Party Started” by Pink. The heavy baseline that kicks off the song lets you know that a great cover song is in progress. This track is my pick as the fan favorite on the album and should be the song by which you measure the rest of the album.

One only knows what the original artists think of how their songs are covered by artists that probably only make a fraction of their superstar salaries. Most likely some of the original artists are flattered by these twists and some might not even hear these new renditions at all. One thing is for certain though; members of the Backstreet Boys and N’sync will be most impressed with the fact that the artists that covered their songs could actually perform while both playing instruments and singing at the same time. Amazing.

Well, we can only wait for what is next in this series from Fearless Records. Maybe a Punk Goes Country or a Punk Goes Disco is on the horizon. Only time will tell. Until then, when we hopefully hear Jordan and the guys from New Found Glory covering “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus, you can hear all of the tracks off of Punk Goes Pop being played on XROXX.com!!!

XROXX.com Album Rating: XXXX (4 out of 5 possible X's)

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Scott Hanson
scott.hanson@xroxx.com

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