20th Anniversary Series: Volume OneThe Bouncing Souls
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Released: March 7, 2009
Label: Chunksaah
Review by: Bill Jones
As part of their 20th anniversary celebration, veteran Jersey rockers The Bouncing Souls are more than halfway through their plans to release a new song digitally the first day of every month for the entire year. Along the way, the band is releasing a 7-inch vinyl every three months on Chunksaah, each collecting three months worth of tracks and one extra.
Volume One collects “Gasoline” (January), “We All Sing Along” (February) and “Airport Security” (March) and the bonus track, “A Life Less Ordinary.”
“Gasoline” gets things off to a familiar Souls start. It is a fast-paced track that opens with a proclamation from Greg Attonito about material on television desensitizing emotions. It breaks into the full band that, despite the content of the lyrics, will surely make Souls fans want to dance and sing along. It is followed on Side A by “We All Sing Along,” a straightforward punk anthem about youth angst, a middle-aged woman lost in suburbia and an old man’s shame living in a box, all with the problem that fate had different things planned than they did. The common bond is the music – “We all sing along.”
The first two songs are promising, but the B Side slows things done with varied results. The Bouncing Souls can do slow songs well, but “Airport Security” doesn’t hit the mark. The lyrics fail to resonate, and the slow, strolling bass line does little to make it exciting. It sounds like a mediocre 90s alt-rock-meets-indie song that would find itself in the credits of a bad romantic comedy. “A Life Less Ordinary” is a better example of Bouncing Souls doing slow, with a front-porch acoustic feel working well with the stories about hitting bottom and being okay with it.
The vinyl reportedly comes in three versions. The review copy featured a hazy maroon and black colored wax. Bouncing Souls also have a maroon with black and green splatter, and maroon records available through various purchase methods. Each features one quarter of The Bouncing Souls 20th anniversary logo, which is to be completed through the other releases.
As with most 7-inch records, 20th Anniversary Series: Volume One is almost too brief to grasp the big picture. “Gasoline” and “We Sing Along” are both great songs, throwing back to different aspects of the Souls’ career. “A Life Less Ordinary” is also a great tune in its own right, but “Airport Security” is throwaway. Still, Souls fans and record collectors will like having these songs in a format other than digital. Kind of a bummer it doesn’t include a download code, though, so fans don’t have to pay for the songs twice if they want the collectible and the songs in a more practical format.
Volume One collects “Gasoline” (January), “We All Sing Along” (February) and “Airport Security” (March) and the bonus track, “A Life Less Ordinary.”
“Gasoline” gets things off to a familiar Souls start. It is a fast-paced track that opens with a proclamation from Greg Attonito about material on television desensitizing emotions. It breaks into the full band that, despite the content of the lyrics, will surely make Souls fans want to dance and sing along. It is followed on Side A by “We All Sing Along,” a straightforward punk anthem about youth angst, a middle-aged woman lost in suburbia and an old man’s shame living in a box, all with the problem that fate had different things planned than they did. The common bond is the music – “We all sing along.”
The first two songs are promising, but the B Side slows things done with varied results. The Bouncing Souls can do slow songs well, but “Airport Security” doesn’t hit the mark. The lyrics fail to resonate, and the slow, strolling bass line does little to make it exciting. It sounds like a mediocre 90s alt-rock-meets-indie song that would find itself in the credits of a bad romantic comedy. “A Life Less Ordinary” is a better example of Bouncing Souls doing slow, with a front-porch acoustic feel working well with the stories about hitting bottom and being okay with it.
The vinyl reportedly comes in three versions. The review copy featured a hazy maroon and black colored wax. Bouncing Souls also have a maroon with black and green splatter, and maroon records available through various purchase methods. Each features one quarter of The Bouncing Souls 20th anniversary logo, which is to be completed through the other releases.
As with most 7-inch records, 20th Anniversary Series: Volume One is almost too brief to grasp the big picture. “Gasoline” and “We Sing Along” are both great songs, throwing back to different aspects of the Souls’ career. “A Life Less Ordinary” is also a great tune in its own right, but “Airport Security” is throwaway. Still, Souls fans and record collectors will like having these songs in a format other than digital. Kind of a bummer it doesn’t include a download code, though, so fans don’t have to pay for the songs twice if they want the collectible and the songs in a more practical format.
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