Various Artists – Take Action! Volume 9

For the past nine years, Hopeless Records and Sub City Records have released a charity compilation in conjunction with their Take Action! Tour and over the course of the past nine releases, the sound of the series has most definitely changed.  For me, that’s disappointing because I used to love the series but it makes sense as the style of the compilation has now evolved to feature the current group of up and coming bands; most of which play either a brand of saturated pop-emo or electronic-tinged pop.

However, the Take Action series remains a series that excites me – even after last year’s dismal display – and this year they’ve seemed to have taken it up a notch and released a two disc compilation that is – for the most part – moderately enjoyable.

The first disc kicks off with the must-have Public Service Announcement, this time from We The Kings. Oddly enough, this PSA seems to be a lot more of a promotional message rather than most PSAs as this one doesn’t actually raise awareness of anything. Oh well.

After that, they jump into the CD with the highlight of the compilation: an acoustic cover of Jimmy Eat World’s The Middle by We The Kings. The rest of the first disc features mainly pop-emo and pop-punk bands, making for a pleasant but occasionally bland listen. There are some good to great songs, like The Summer Set’s Punch Drunk Love (Acoustic) which sounds like The Rocket Summer  or The Dangerous Summer’s Surfaced (Acoustic) which sounds like The Starting Line. We Are The In Crowd offers a catchy pop-rock number with Never Be What You Want that really shines when the female vocalist (who sounds a lot like Hayley Williams) takes control of the song. The Friday Night Boys’ acoustic take on Permanent Heartbreak is one of the stronger acoustic tracks on the CD – even outshining Frank Turner and Fake Problems, whose songs – Rock and Roll Romance and Mr. Rock and Roll respectively – are both a little disappointing.

There are a few duds in the mix, like There For Tomorrow, A Rocket To The Moon and The Ready Set which all make you reach for the skip button; but as a whole, Disc 1 makes for a nice, light hearted background music. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the second disc which is essentially impossible to listen to.

First of all, six out of the first seven tracks are remixes and this causes several problems. The first problem is that the original songs – by the likes of 3oh!3, Cobra Starship and Let’s Get It – are painfully difficult to listen to in the first place; add in the remixes and you’re  making the songs even more painful to listen to. I mean, I don’t mind Lights but my god, they somehow made her voice even squeakier on the remix of Saviour and I didn’t think it was possible to make her voice any higher than it already was. The idea of sitting through the opening tracks becomes such a daunting fact that it becomes impossible to force yourself to listen to the record – even though there are some drastically different songs from the likes of Bring me The Horizon, August Burns Red, and Eatmewhileimhot! . These bands give the album some of its intensity back that were so prevalent in their compilations earlier releases, but it’s far too little too late.

As for as compilations go, Take Action! Volume 9 lands somewhere in the middle of the pack. The first disc is good enough to be listened to repeatedly, the second, however, is not. On the plus side, it is for charity, so that’s a bonus.