Album Review: Various - 'Punk Goes Pop Vol. 3'

12 December 2010 | 1:42 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Boring and at times cringe worthy, the worst in the series.

The 'Punk Goes' series, which is now up to its tenth release, started out strong, but has been on a rapid decline with its last few records. The albums were never completely fantastic, usually its was a case of a few gems in amongst some very questionable cover versions, but great things were created, A Day To Remember's cover of The Fray's Cable Car (Over My Head) for example. Possible due to a lack of new genre ideas, the series has just released the third volume of the 'Pop' line, which is unfortunately, the worst one yet.


The larger name bands have all abandoned the gimmick and the young up and comers are struggling for original ideas. Some may say a good cover song happens when a band applies their original style to a song and makes it their own and the bands here have given that a red hot crack, however the results are borderline cringe worthy.


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The covers chosen are some of the most popular commercial hits around at the moment and that may be part of the problem, most of the songs simply aren't very good in the first place. The record begins with Breathe Carolina's Down, originally performed by Jay Sean, and sounding pretty much exactly the same as the original but with some poor Lil Wayne impersonations. Things get worse quickly with Woe Is Me's terrible metalcore version of Katy Perry's Hot N' Cold, and Mayday Parade's boring and un-inventive Jason Derullo cover In My Head.


The first glimmer of hope is This Century's version of M.I.A's Paper Planes, a cool rendition of an already great song that that is made original by the smooth vocals and backing synthesisers. Other highlights include The World Alive's energetic version of Kanye West's Heartless and Miss May I's blistering cover of Jay-Z's Run This Town. The Ready Set deserve a mention for the song that is most different from the original in their version of B.O.B's Airplanes and Cute Is What We Aim For deserve to be punished for their woeful attempt at T.I's Dead And Gone. The best is saved until the end with We Came As Roman's version of Justin Timberlake's My Love which manages to find a good balance between the synth pop of the original and the band's usual heavy sound.

More than anything else this record serves as proof that this series has had its day and should probably call it quits before all dignity is completely lost.

1. Breathe Carolina - "Down"

2. Woe, Is Me - "Hot 'N Cold"

3. Artist Vs. Poet - "Bad Romance"

4. Mayday Parade - "In My Head"

5. Asking Alexandria - "Right Now (Na Na Na)"

6. This Century - "Paper Planes"

7. The Word Alive - "Heartless"

8. Family Force 5 - "Bulletproof"

9. Of Mice & Men - "Blame It"

10. Miss May I - "Run This Town"

11. The Ready Set - "Airplanes"

12. Cute Is What We Aim For - "Dead And Gone"

13. Sparks The Rescue - "Need You Now"

14. We Came As Romans - "My Love"