Joey Cape and Tony Sly are the front men of Lagwagon and No Use for a Name, respectively. If you know both of those bands and know how you feel about those bands, this album is probably only going to continue those feelings. While these bands are typically known for a heavier, full band sound in the vein of punk rock, there's nothing here that's going to blow anybody away.
The album consists of 6 songs from each performer, and of the 6 songs 5 are acoustic versions of songs from each person's respective band and then 1 is written for the album. Personally, of the two bands I've always favored Lagwagon, and as I said that only continues here. Tony Sly opens the album, and while I enjoy his performances, for the most part I feel his half falls short. Of the two, Sly seems to be the one more directly adapting his songs to acoustic, playing and singing them hardly any differently then he would normally. While some of the band's fans might actually prefer this, I can't help but feel this only makes the acoustic version pointless to begin with. To me his most notable song is "On the Outside," which seems to be the most differently developed.
Joey Cape then takes over with a very interesting twist on his old song "Move the Car." This song and several of the songs following it seemed to suggest that Cape really took the time to develop these songs for an acoustic sound. His songs aren't just playing the normal song but with an acoustic guitar as opposed to electric. Many of the songs see not only new instrumentation but in some cases changed parts and even different lyrics. I was particularly pleased with "Tragic Vision," a song from Lagwagon's first release back in 1992. It was nice to see a fresh coat of paint applied to this (at the time) 12 year old song. I was never a big fan of the original, but the acoustic version proved very appealing to me. I was also excited to get the song "Twenty-Seven," here, possibly my favorite, or at least one of my favorite, Lagwagon song(s) of all time, from what is certainly my favorite of their albums.
Normally, when "Punk" goes acoustic, the result isn't particularly interesting. Historically, I tend to find myself more disappointed than anything else with these sorts of releases. But I think overall, any fan of these bands can certainly find something to enjoy here, and some of these songs could even possibly stand on their own as good acoustic rock of their own right. All in all, a pretty good album.
No comments:
Post a Comment