Various Artists - Punk Goes Pop Vol. 7 (Album Review)
Various Artists - Punk Goes Pop Vol. 7
Released - 14th July 2017
What is a cover album?
The very nature of one implies at least a passing level of association with the songs you’re going to commit yourself too. It implies you’re going to actually enjoy the songs the bands are covering. So it makes me wonder, seven releases into this questionable series, why Pop Goes Punk Vol. 7 even exists?
Because the reality is, I don’t feel like there’s a reason for this record to exist.
Hell, you know something is bad when the best thing on the release is Andy Black covering Adele’s ‘When We Were Young’ with a voice so monotone, he could give Lana Del Rey a run for her money. Most of the other bands have committed the sin of either sticking too close to the original but with heavy metalcore screams (because that’s innovative) or they’ve just outright cooked it with more auto-tune than you would get on a night out at my local gay club.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dJQ8qevibM&w=640&h=360]
At times, this release has me questioning whether these bands were any good in the first place. Dance Gavin Dance covering Bruno Mars’ ‘That’s What I Like’ (a song I hear at the gym every day) for example is about as cringe as you expect it to be, which is sad because out of all the bands, they should be the ones capable of producing a decent cover of a pop song.
Then we have The Amity Affliction who by the way of covering ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ by The Weeknd (another gym staple) is a perfect encapsulation of everything wrong here as much like their own music, they feel the need to leave everything awash in auto-tune, screams and heavy guitars. But hey, at least there are no ocean references.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOzBMp9aSpo&w=640&h=360]
Just to be clear here, not everything on here is generic metalcore, Eat Your Heart Out do a pretty decent cover of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’ and Boston Manor do a serviceable take on Twenty One Pilots’ ‘Heathens’. But by that point, I think you would be hard pressed to care beyond “hey this isn’t another terrible metalcore cover”.
So overall, I implore each and every person on this Earth to avoid this album, I’m not kidding here and I am not trying to be hyperbolic for the sake of it. This is probably the worst thing I have heard this year by such an easy long mile it’s frankly embarrassing. I don’t recommend you listen to this on Spotify out of curiosity, I don’t recommend you send this to a friend as a joke gift; I wouldn’t even recommend this to my worst enemy.
Punk Goes Pop Vol. 7 is the kind of item that deserves to be taken to the Mexican desert, dropped into a giant hole filled with fire and buried.
Punk Goes Pop Vol. 7 - tracklisting
- State Champs - "Stitches" originally performed by Shawn Mendes
- Dance Gavin Dance - "That's What I Like" originally performed by Bruno Mars
- New Years Day - "Gangsta" originally performed by Kehlani
- The Amity Affliction - "Can't Feel My Face" originally performed by The Weeknd
- Andy Black (feat. Juliet Simms) - "When We Were Young" originally performed by Adele
- Grayscale - "Love Yourself" originally performed by Justin Bieber
- Capsize - "Fake Love" originally performed by Drake
- Boston Manor - "Heathens" originally performed by Twenty One Pilots
- Eat Your Heart Out - "Shape Of You" originally performed by Ed Sheeran
- The Plot In You - "Let It Go" originally performed by James Bay
- Ice Nine Kills - "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" originally performed by ZAYN & Taylor Swift
- Seaway - "Closer" originally performed by The Chainsmokers (feat. Halsey)
- Too Close To Touch - "In The Name Of Love" originally performed by Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha
Rating: 1/10
Punk Goes Pop Vol. 7 is Out Tomorrow via Fearless Records. Pre-Order (if you dare) here
Review by Kaydan Howison
PS. I posted a better Punk Goes Pop cover down below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F_fg4QrBvI&w=853&h=480]
