Pop Punk summer camp gets heavier
The Warped Tour serves every year as a blessing for America's youth: for a relatively low price you get over 40 bands that bring the mosh inducing mall punk to a venue near you. The bands on the tour call it punk rock summer camp; it's a breeding ground for the next big things for the Alternative Press set, as this CD shows there is an assortment of heavy hitters and not so familiar names.
Ones to watch on this CD would be Boys Night Out with their compelling and different 'Composing' as well as Gatsbys American Dream who bring a mish mash of all genres together with stunning story telling skills with 'Theatre'. The last newcomer you need to know is Bedouin Soundclash whose reggae and dub vibes will leave you pining for summer to last forever.
Rising stars on this CD are hard to pick, but can be categorised into genres Emo, Screamo, Pop Punk and Ska. The Emo label is not often something bands want, but in this case bands who do pull off this genre without attaining clichés musically are Mae, The Academy Is... and Armour For Sleep, all relatively fresh sounding, this isn't recycled music and may be what's left once the trend of this genre washes out.
With the Screamo set, and there is a bevvy of these bands on here, in most cases it's hard to decipher one from another: Silverstein, Hawthorne Heights and Bleed The Dream being the only bands that show the ounce of individuality that puts them a step forward from the rest of the pack. All three show massive strides forward in their work carrying melody forward as well as retaining that aggressive post hardcore effect in their composition.
Pop Punk and Ska being the dying trends of today, the turn out on this CD is weak, Fall Out Boy, the years break out stars display their radio ready 'Saturday' to sugary perfection, Motion City Soundtracks Moog-infested 'Make Out Kids' also provides a fun bounce along tune for the kids to get into. The wonderful Dropkick Murphy's and Big D And The Kids Table represent Ska, both bringing fun and never ending energy to sear through your speakers with the two tracks they bring to the collection.
The heavy hitters on this year's Warped Tour are well represented on this CD: Pennywise, The Offspring, Hot Water Music, Millencolin, MxPx, Strung Out and No Use For A Name all provide strong tracks that add to the CD that this year is slightly lacking the new good display of new punk talent that's usually present. No doubt these bands show the younger ones how it's meant to be done, the classic vocals of those such as Dexter Holland and Tony Sly, familiar and fresh all at the same time.
This CD does its job, it gives a fair representation of what is present on the Warped Tour this year, but take this warning if you don't like screaming proceed with caution, this isn't the Warped Tour comp of previous years, this represents for the vast majority what's oh so popular right now, namely, Screamo.