Punk Goes 80s/Punk Goes Metal/Punk Goes Pop

Fearless Records and their stable of artists recently released multiple “Punk Does …” albums. The general idea of each of these albums is the same; each one contains fifteen or so punk bands covering well-known songs from outside their genre.

For the most part the bands are unknowns (at least to me), and fans of “punk” will be quick to point out that most of the bands are much closer to “Blink 182 punk” than they are to “Sex Pistols punk”. Sure, most of the tracks are fast and loud, but rarely are they sloppy or unpolished. A lot of planning goes into making music sound this spontaneous.

The selection of tunes are largely mainstream — I was only unfamilar with one of the 80’s tracks and two of the metal tracks. I didn’t know several of the pop tracks, and that would make sense (modern pop is not my forte’). Some of the songs seem like they’re on the wrong albums; “Send me an Angel”, “Borderline” and “Like a Prayer” (all from the Punk goes Pop album) would have fit better with the other 80’s tracks, and the Metal compilation wastes too much space on hair ballads before breaking out the Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica tunes.

If you think punkish covers of well-known songs are funny and/or entertaining and don’t care about who’s performing them, these are worth your buck. Both the production quality and musical performances are quite good. If you don’t see the point in such ventures, well, these won’t be the ones to win you over.

Punk Goes 80’s

01. Manic Monday – Relient K
02. I Ran – Hidden In Plain View
03. I Melt With You – Sugarcult
04. Your Love – Midtown
05. Don’t You Forget About Me – Rufio
06. Pop Song 89 – Motion City Soundtrack
07. Holding Out For A Hero – Emery
08. Just Like Heaven – Gatsbys American Dream
09. Power Of Love – The Early November
10. Straight Up – Halifax
11. Dead Man’s Party – A Thorn For Every Heart
12. Wrapped Around Your Finger – Brazil
13. Forever Young – So They Say
14. Everyone Wants To Rule The World – Jamison Parker
15. Video Killed The Radio Star – Amber Pacific

Punk Goes Pop

01. Dynamite Boy – I Want It That Way
02. Slick Shoes – Candy
03. Stretch Arm Strong – Get This Party Started
04. Rufio – Like A Prayer
05. Further Seems Forever – Bye, Bye, Bye
06. Noise Ratchet – Crush
07. Element 101 – I’m like A Bird
08. Knockout – Survivor
09. The Starting Line – I’m Real
10. Keepsake – The Way You Love Me
11. Reach The Sky – Sometimes
12. Fake ID – All Or Nothing
13. Showoff – Borderline
14. Thrice – Send Me An Angel
15. Nicotine – …Baby One More Time
16. Student Rick – Heaven Is A Place on Earth

Punk Goes Metal

01. Divit – Breakin The Law
02. Jughead’s Revenge – Talk Dirty To Me
03. AFI – My Michelle
04. Bigwig – War Ensemble
05. A New Found Glory – Heaven
06. Strung Out – Bark At The Moon
07. The Ataris – I Remember You
08. Link 80 – Harvester Of Sorrow
09. Guttermouth – Sexual Abuse
10. Dynamite Boy – TNT
11. Death By Stereo – Little Fighter
12. Swindle – Youth Gone Wild
13. Turnedown – I Don’t Know
14. Diesel Boy – Looks That Kill
15. Rx Bandits – Holy Wars
16. Ten Foot Pole – Love Song
17. The Aquabats – Why Rock?

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