Live Fat Die Young, Various Artists
You know when you get your hands on a fat wreck comp that you're going to get a bunch of quality tunes, and their latest offering is no different; it could quite possibly be the best one yet.
Live fat die young, worth buying for the title and cd cover alone, manages to deliver exactly what everyone wants; a mix of bands and a definite mix of styles. There are the bands you know are gonna produce the reliable quality songs, such as no use for a name, whos 'Let me down' is a rollercoaster of a song, finally drawing to a slow and calm still.
Strung Out's contribution to the compilation, 'Novacain' is also outstanding and uplifting, a track that would have fitted perfectly on 'twisted by design'. One small surprise, Mad Caddie's 'Shut the door', sees no trumpets battling their way to the front, yet still manages to be excellent nonetheless, with an accoustic, subdued beginning morphing into a guitar filled frenzy.
No fat wreck compilation is perfect though, and due to the nature of its diversity, you're not going to get on well with all of the songs - for me it was Wizo, Tilt, Sick of it all and Rise against; but a hardcore fan may well think the latter two are damn good - its this point that made me decide to give it a 4 instead of a 5.
Good Riddance, NOFX, Propagandhi, Bracket, I don't have enough space or time to describe all these amazing tracks on this album (and you'd probably have to sit down with a pizza and a drink to just to get through it).
Needless to say, you just know there's going to be some shouting at the end of that gimme gimme track...
nick
