Various Artists – Take Action! Volume 7

Wow. That’s all I can say when I look at the seventh installment of the Take Action! series. I mean, what happened to it? I gave last year’s volume a nice, solid four out of a five because while it did have a few weak spots on it, Sub City had given it enough meat to make up for it. On this one though, apart from the improved artwork, the label has definitely dropped the ball – even more so when you compare it to its predecessors.

The first release had a listing that consisted of Alkaline Trio, Hot Water Music, AFI,Strike Anywhere, Jersey,Mike Park, Good Riddance, Shai Halud, Suicide Machines, Grade, At The Drive-In, Lawrence Arms, Ataris, TSOL and more. The second one followed in its footsteps with yet another solid list of bands but even more tracks than before. With each successive disc, the compilation improved. While the bands started to veer more towards the emo side of the punk spectrum, they continually had a few key artists appear on it and not only that, but each release got bigger and bigger. They went from one disc to two discs, thirty songs to over forty songs. Then, on the sixth installment they went up and beyond with not only forty-two songs but also twenty-nine music videos. It was a massive release and had a little bit of everything for everyone.

Now, on the seventh installment they seemed to have taken a step backwards. Not only do the bands mainly focus on the emo side – with the likes of Mayday Parade, All Time Low, Cute Is What We Aim For, Silverstein, Chiodos, and From First To Last filling up the disc, but they only gave us twenty songs. They cut the amount of bands in half. Yes, there’s still a DVD with twenty music videos but even that lost nine tracks compared to volume six and I would prefer to have more music than music videos in it anyway.

On top of the sever lack in content, Take Action! Volume 7 suffers from the same faults that volume six and earlier versions did too: there’s nothing on here that hasn’t been heard before. The sole unreleased cut is The Matches‘ Their City which will appear on their March 18th release, A Band Of Hope. They couldn’t even give us a glimpse at Thrice‘s Alchemy Index Vol. 3&4 and instead gave us Digital Sea fromVol. 2. While yes, Digital Sea is a good song (one of the best on the compilation), it would have been nice to at least hear something we can’t get somewhere else.

Despite my incessant badgering, Volume 7 does have some hope and a few decent tracks, it’s just too bad they’ve all been released already. Still, I have no problem listening to cuts from Meg & Dia, Motion City Soundtrack, Every Time I Die, Emery, Set Your Goals or The Spill Canvas. Even that points of a serious flaw: when The Spill Canvas is one of the highlights in a compilation then something is wrong.

I don’t feel good bashing the compilation for a few reasons. First, I do like Hopeless/Sub City Records and normally approve of what they release. Secondly, it’s a charity release so that should give it a few bonus points. But the sad fact of the matter is that Take Action! Volume 7 just isn’t worth it and music fans won’t find anything of note on it. Here’s hoping they go back to where they have been on Volume 8.