As of November 2, the creative minds at Fearless Records released their tenth installment of their “Punk Goes.” series with “Punk Goes Pop Volume 3.” The “Punk Goes.” series features up-and-coming bands in the punk and post-hardcore scenes covering songs from different genres. This was one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year because of its line up of bands such as Breathe Carolina, Woe Is Me, Asking Alexandria, The Word Alive, Of Mice and Men, Miss May I, The Ready Set and We Came As Romans.The record opens with Breathe Carolina’s cover of “Down” by Jay Sean ft. Lil Wayne. Breathe Carolina is a synth-based band with a rather pop sound, so the song does not sound too far off from the original. Other than the occasional verses with screams and synth-fills, the song is pretty similar to Jay Sean’s version.
Track two features a new band called Woe, Is Me covering “Hot ‘N Cold” by Katy Perry. The highlight is easily the clean vocals of Tyler Carter. While the band has just released its first album this year, Carter is already being compared to the greats such as Emarosa’s Jonny Craig. The band combines great vocals with fast guitar riffs and breakdowns to give this pop song an edgy feel.
The next highlight of the album is track five and features Asking Alexandria’s cover of “Right Now (Na Na Na)” by Akon. Asking Alexandria released their first album last year and has definitely made a name for themselves over a short period of time. AA’s use of fast guitar chugs with complex drumming and synth sounds made them very popular very fast. This song however seems a lot mellower than what listeners are used to hearing. While this is still a great song, it is surely different from their debut album, “Stand Up and Scream.”
The next highlight is “Heartless” by Kanye West, performed by The Word Alive. I believe that band did a great job with this song. The choruses are sung with clean vocals while the verses are screamed, making a good balance for this popular rap song. The highlight of this song is the insanely fast drumming during the verses.
Track 9 is the song I was most anxious to hear. It is Of Mice & Men’s cover of “Blame It” by Jamie Foxx ft. T-Pain. This is the first time we get a chance to hear Jerry Roush’s vocals recorded with OM&M. I have to say I was very impressed with Roush’s job on the track. He had big shoes to fill after the band’s loss of Austin Carlile, but I believe he has done a great job. Shayley Bourget also graced this track with his clean vocals that I love so much.
Track 10 is my favorite track on the album. The song is “Run This Town” by Jay-Z ft. Kanye West and Rhianna, and the band is none other than Miss May I. The song begins with a fade in of Ryan Neff’s clean vocals and jumps straight into the first verse featuring Levi Benton’s epic screams. Neff’s representation of the chorus gave me chills. If you may not be interested in buying the entire album, at least get this track. I promise you will not be disappointed.
“Punk Goes Pop Volume 3” gets a 3.5 our out of 5 because while some songs were absolutely amazing, others were not as great. This is still, however, a great album that I would recommend to anyone looking for new music. If you’re not sure if you want to spend the entire $10 on the album, you can check out the full album at www.myspace.com/punkgoes and pick out your favorites.
