On paper this has the potential to be an incredible audio experience; two awesome bands, new material, some covers and all on one disc. I’m not sure why but it just didn’t live up to my expectations. That’s not to say it’s a stale pile crap as it’s not at all, in fact, on it’s own merits it’s pretty good.
BOUNCING SOULS took the first half of the album and kick things off with ‘Punks in Vegas’ a nice melodic number which would have fitted on ‘How I spent my summer vocation’ with ease. So after a couple of years of anticipation for new material I wasn’t overly impressed. That was until I heard track 2: ‘No Security’, it’s in the melodic hardcore vein of earlier ‘SOULS stuff but a whole lot better, this is what I’d been waiting for, top stuff. Next up is a cover of ANTI-FLAG‘s ‘That’s youth’; I couldn’t really imagine Greg Attonito pulling off a Justin Sane song, but his forceful vocals make things work surprisingly well to my delight.
From this point though, the ‘Souls side is a little disappointing; ‘Bryan’s lament’ is slower than any of previous tracks and just fails to get out of first gear, not a particularly bad track, just stuck in a quagmire of mediocracy. ‘We’re coming back’ keeps things simplistic with a basic chord structure and big sing-a-long chorus, pure cheese in reality but you’ll have you’re foot tapping along by the end. ‘Less than free’ goes back to the more aggressive side of the band after a very long winded intro which doesn’t seem to go anywhere but after a tempo change we’re right back on track. Again in true ‘Souls style there’s a nice big chorus with some effective group vocals going on but doesn’t really stay too memorable even after a few listens.
ANTI-FLAG‘s efforts I seem to prefer, the first offering ‘America got it right’ rates amongst my top five AF songs ever, all the usual tricks are pulled out the book; clever guitar hooks, driving bass line and Justin’s ‘clever’ socialist lyrics. ‘Smash it to pieces’ is particularly upbeat for AF sounding like ‘A new kind of army’ era. Again another typically structured AF song showing their penchant for a catchy chorus, well if it makes a song memorable where’s the harm? ‘No borders no nations’ is a stronger more aggressive track giving Justin a rest from lead vocal duties. It throws in another AF party piece, the military sounding breakdown section. As much as AF aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their leather jacketed sleeves I don’t seem to get too bored by their content even if it’s relentless track after track, I think it must be the big hook laden choruses.
Like the ‘SOULS, the latter part of AF’s half tales off a bit; ‘Gifts from America’ sounds like they knocked it up in a hurry, it’s a bit of a second rate AF song and the most disappointing of their half, just a bit bland really. However, in true BYO style, AF return the BS’s sentiments by covering ‘Freaks, nerds and romantics’, again Justin refrains from singing and leaves it to his more than able colleagues. They cover the song well as in it actually sounds like it could be from the AF back catalogue, always a sign of a well thought out choice, or is it just laziness?; either way it doesn’t tickle my pickle too much. To finish off the CD a cover of the legendary BUZZCOCKS track ‘Ever fallen in love’ is rinsed out. When I saw this listed on the inlay I expected good things from it but when I said rinsed out, it does sound like they’ve drained any life from the song. I was expecting it to be a lot faster but it’s literally just a straight cut and paste copy into the AF recording studio.
Mike