Album Details

• Artist: Various Artists
• Album: The Music Of Absolutepunk Forum Members Compilation Volume 2
• Label: None
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: symphony on 2007-09-05

Personal opinions aside, Absolutepunk is the holy grail of all that is indie, punk, emo (a debateable subject on the forums), post-rock, post-hardcore, and so on. And apparently, musicians of all sorts and genres find themselves welcomed within the brillantly egotistical and elisist yet enjoyable and extremely entertaining community that is the forums--whose very participants created the jams, organized the compilation, The Music of Absolutepunk Forum Members Compilation Volume 2 (say it in one breath), and even were generous to offer for a fantastic price--priceless. Jason Tate, start a label already.

The compilation is 20 songs--nearly an hour and a half of college and high school student angst and lyricism. It's got the Secret Handshake-esque toe-tappers (Handel's Drinking Problem "Feature Gilms and Casting Calls") along with a From First to Last-goes-TREOS ear-ringers (The Chemist vs. The Computer's "Coasting Towards the Tide, Not the Ladder"). For a compilation spanning so many genres, it has magnificent flow and even more shocking for a compilation, there aren't tracks that I want to skip over. Sure, Five Cent Wing's "Long Nights and Weekends" may be a little off vocally and its chorus may make virtually no sense (underachieving to the best of your ability?!). And yes, Snowmobile's instrumental, "Spring Has Sprung," may be so repetitive may sound like a more high-tech version of that irritating white noise on a bad channel--but it's also damn catchy tune for you to hum in the middle of English.

The real standouts of the album are "Play Three Again," a poppy track laden with quirky lyrics and some spectacular vocals from Fourteen Faster. Cowalker's acoustic, "Eurydice," might actually be so sweet that your girlfriend may cry for a year. A06, the forum favorite, tosses the compilation a delicious track, "The Nemesis Program." Musically "Lost", from Silhouettes of Something Strange, is strikingly similar to Straylight Run. Last but not least, there is "The Minotaur" from I Take Out Lions, a track that seems to draw influence from at least 20 different artists that you just can't place words to describe the tasty intricate work of the guitars that make the track so enjoyable.

All-in-all, I'm not a huge fan of compilations. They usually don't have many songs that I'm head over heals for and I usually only get them from one song and then regret my decision and wish I had just downloaded the damn song. However, this one doesn't leave any of these regrets, foremost because it's free but even if it did cost me some bones, I'd probably still ante up because it's simply that enjoyable.

User Reviews and Comments

Review:

on 2007-09-06 hstisgod Said:

I seriously think you give these guys FAR TOO MUCH CREDIT. The do not know the meaning of diversity
Not Rated