The Punk Goes Pop series has always been a good way for me to pretend to know what songs are popular amongst other kids my age. The newest installment, Punk Goes Pop Volume 4, is no different. Pierce The Veil kicks off the record strong with their cover of Bruno Mars’ “Just The Way You Are,” showcasing their diversity on a work much different than anything they’ve done before. Following that, Tonight Alive brings one of the highlights to the disc with their faster-paced rendition of “Little Lion Man” by Mumford & Sons.
For comedy, For All Those Sleeping succeeded in completely removing any sort of innocence from Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me,” on track seven. It draws you in with a cute little snippet of acoustic guitar, then immediately drags you down and kicks your ass with a punishing bass drums and blistering screams, then proceeds to plaster the thing with obscenities. Overall a great cover.
The record also features A Skylit Drive on the ninth track with “Love The Way You Lie,” seemingly the most brilliant artist-song pairing on the disc. With the dueling vocal style A Skylit Drive has already mastered, they were able to capture the emotions of Eminem and Rihanna and put a twist of their own on it. The album rounds off with I See Stars’ flat-out hilarious take on “Till The World Ends” by Britney Spears, followed by an unremarkable rendition of “Runaway” by Silverstein and “Super Bass” by The Downtown Fiction.
On the whole, this was one of my most pleasurable experiences with the Punk Goes Pop franchise, and although it features some duds, you can’t expect anything less when artists are branching out of their comfort zone.
In A Word: Unexpected
