Label: Locomotive Records
Released: July 17, 2007
For a genre that has produced some of rock’s most creative movements, punk has also produced more than its fair share of covers. From cover albums to cover bands, it seems that every time I turn around, there’s another punk cover out there. While some of these have been very clever, most of them have relied solely on speed and power chords and that got old awfully fast.
The Residudes’ Welcome to the Suck is a whole album of punk rock-ified covers that pretends that we haven’t had enough yet. True, they do nail several of them. Their version of the Kinks’ “Coming Dancing” makes me think of slam dancing, not the dance halls of post-WW II England. The irony of playing John Denver’s “Country Roads” at a breakneck pace isn’t lost, because they somehow still capture some small part of the original. Their “Oi! Oi! Oi!” chant in the “Cheers” theme makes me wonder why it wasn’t in the original. Sadly, these tracks run back to back, so the best the album has to offer comes in one burst.
Unfortunately, for every one they hit, they have another one that misses. Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” loses all it’s form and would be almost unrecognizable without the lyrics. “Mothers Little Helper” ends up being a jumbled mess in their attempt to stir it up. If you ever wondered why anyone would bother covering Tommy Tutone, the Residudes cover of “867-5309 Jenny” won’t answer that question. Perhaps worse still is their cover of the classic ode to drinking, “Alcohol,” which sounds like a Gang Green tribute band.
Most of the album though is made up of renditions that fall somewhere in the middle. In the right mood, they might be fun, but none are essential. Perhaps if you just can’t enough of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Welcome to the Suck has a lot to offer, but personally I can’t imagine being in that position. Most of the covers are competent and taken piecemeal they will provide some entertainment value, but as a whole, it’s a tedious listen.
Rating: 4/10