Album review: Four Year Strong: 'Explains It All'

FOUR YEAR STRONG: 'Explains It All' (Decaydance)

Everyone loves a good punk cover. The popularity of the ‘Punk Goes…’ compilation albums is practically unrivalled within the genre, leading every two-bit gang of baby-faced stadium wannabes to try their hand at transforming some God-awful smash hit by the latest demon child to grace the top end of the singles chart into a bouncy punk classic. Would we give a rat’s about A Day to Remember if they hadn’t covered Kelly Clarkson? Do Goldfinger have a track that makes audiences go quite as mental as ’99 Red Balloons?’ And does anyone know anything at all by Save Ferris apart from ‘Come on Eileen?’ The answer is a resounding no; pop punk covers are a goldmine and Four Year Strong desperately want to tap into it, giving us versions of eleven tracks from the nineties that ‘inspired [them] to form a band.’

Only problem is, ‘Explains it All’ feels rather pointless. The concept immediately cripples the record, since most of the songs are staples of the band’s own genre. They attempt ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings’, a career highlight for the Smashing Pumpkins, and it falls hopelessly flat. They rob Nirvana’s ‘In Bloom’ of all its magic, washing it away in a sea of over-polished guitars and whiny vocals. They destroy Everclear’s outstanding ‘So Much for the Afterglow’, loading it with interchangeable vocals and boring guitars. And then there’s Third Eye Blind’s ‘Semi-Charmed Life’ and No Doubt’s ‘Spiderwebs’, which they add nothing to apart from a few ill-advised hardcore breakdowns. When the originals are this good, you have to bristle with talent to produce faithful covers and frankly, Four Year Strong just don’t have it in them.

Predictably, when they turn their hand to tracks outside of their genre comfort zone, they meet with more success. The Dawson’s Creek MOR of Nine Days’ ‘Absolutely’ benefits greatly from the thundering punk beat that now rattles through it, and, remarkably, Alanis Morissette sounds vaguely respectable following their hilarious, but infectious, version of ‘Ironic.’ It’s no surprise: pop punk covers were designed to make the truly dreadful sound enjoyable, to give alternative music fans the chance to give their guilty pleasures a modicum of credibility. At this, Four Year Strong actually prove quite adept, and an album full of such treasures would’ve been a far stronger effort. Unfortunately, in trying to pay their respects to the artists who inspired them, they manage to besmirch a number of truly outstanding records, and for that, they will struggle to be forgiven. (4/10)