Labels: Paper and Plastick
Review by: Joe Callaghan
If you like pop punk, then owning this record is essential. This is the pop punk equivalent of the NBA All Star game, or a night at the Oscars. Kind of. You know Egerton right? He’s the guitarist in Descendents, and a founding member of ALL. He recorded a hatful of ultra-poppy rock songs, playing all the instruments, and dished them out to a bunch of vocalists, including Dan Adriano, Joey Cape, Milo Aukerman, Chris Demakes, Chad Price, Scott Reynolds, Tim whatshisface from state-smashers Rise Against, and a number of other shorts-wearing pop punk howlers. The result is a combination of a karaoke and a Punk O Rama compilation, but good! Honest! This is one of the best records I’ve heard this year, not based on any original or artistic merit, but because it is exceptionally fun. The melodic hooks are incredibly pieced together, which you’d expect given Egerton’s back catalogue and the vocalists flexing their vocal chords on this record. Each vocalist provides a unique approach to a catalogue of songs which do sound a little similar, which really brings this record to life, and is endlessly enjoyable. There’s a few duff tracks, but the ones I was actually intrigued to hear lived up to my expectations. Your favourite song will probably be the one by the singer of the band you like best (Less Than Jake for me, obviously!), so if you grew up with this sort of 3 chord waffling, then you’ll find this to be back-to-back hits, and rightly so. Besides, Milo, Scott and Chad are on this record – It’s the closest we’re probably going to get to a Descendents or ALL record, possibly ever again, so relish in the moment.