As myself being a great fan of covers and especially of Fearless Records, I cannot not say that this is definitely the compilation of the year. Or of the decade. And I am not kissing any ass, this is the pure truth, ask anyone. Fearless had this great idea of “Punk Goes Somewhere” compilation and after the wonderful “Punk Goes Metal” of a couple of years ago, I am lucky enough to be alive just to listen to the new one, “Punk Goes Pop”. And of course, if on the old comp some bands played metal covers, on this new one some other bands play pop covers, you know, the ones we are all ashamed to say we know, the ones we listen to MTV and sing when we are taking a shower, yes, those songs!!! And when I had the news of this comp, I was looking forward to hearing it.

And so here it goes, the album features 17 of the best bands around today playng pop covers: from the first Dynamite Boy playing “I Want It That Way” of Backstreet Boys, to Slick Shoes playing “Candy” or Mandy Moore and the amazing version of “Everywere” by Michelle Branch redone by Yellowcard. The record goes on with the hardcore version of “Get This Party Started” by Pink re-done by Stretch Arm Strong: great one. Other great tracks are the ones from Further Seems Forever playing “Bye Bye Bye” by NSync, The Starting Line playing “I’m Real” by that nice ass named J.Lo, Rufio re-playing “Like A Prayer” by Madonna and the Thrice version of “Send Me An Angel” by Real Life. Also Keepsake do an amazing work with “The Way You Love Me” by Faith Hill, probably the best of the album, not to mention some band like Knockout doing a cover of Destiny Child’s “Survivor” or Reach the Sky and Nicotine doing covers of Britney Spears.

I’d say this is the MUST BUT comp of the year, not just for the curiosity of listening some pop songs re-done by punk bands, but also because , as I said, the 17 bands here are some of the best around today. Hands down for Fearless!!!|carlo@staff.truepunk.com