Punk goes pop
Punk Goes Pop Volume 4 is an amazing crossover album. The album takes extremely trendy pop songs and makes them punk. Popular punk bands such as The Ready Set, Go Radio, and more sing the songs. For those of you like me who aren’t the biggest fans of pop, this album makes the songs exceptionally good for listening. The various artists can even make songs by Rihanna, Ke$ha and Taylor Swift not just tolerable, but good.
The album not only manges to transform pop songs, but hip-hop songs as well, like “Roll Up,” by Wiz Khalifa. The artists put their own spin on songs, making them gender appropriate or plural. The song “Super Bass” turns from being sung by Nicki Minaj to The Downtown Fiction. The lyrics change from her original female voice to plural male vocals. While Minaj sings the song to the guys, Downtown Fiction makes it for the ladies.
Some of the songs seem more than punk; they are even death core or “screamo.” The song “You Belong With Me,” by Taylor Swift, begins with screaming. “You’re on the phone with your boyfriend, he’s upset,” sounds so much better in punk vocals than it does in Swift’s anti-feminist whine. Chunk No, Captain Chunk! successfully makes a Ke$ha song not unbearable. While the lyrics are still undoubtedly pointless, the song is now a good listen even while lacking depth. “Love the Way You Lie,” originally by Eminem and Rihanna, is a completely different song when sung by A Skylit Drive. The band does a great job making the song less of a martyr song and more of a painful ode to love.
Unfortunately, the album can’t successfully save every song. “Just the Way You Are” and “Yeah 3x” are pop songs that are beyond saving. While the less techno beats used on the songs are refreshing, the two songs still, for lack of a better word, suck. The bands, however, do an excellent job with the rest of the songs and the album is well worth buying.