Various Artists – Vans Warped Tour 2008 Compilation

First and foremost, I was going to give this CD a higher score. My initial reaction was to give it a 2.5 or a 3 but then a sad realization came over me: some of the songs were censored. Listening to Angels & Airwaves‘ Rite Of Spring as it is mutilated by quick little silent moments to erase words like shit and fuck appalled me (and I actually like the song quite a lot). There’s just something wrong when a Warped Tour compilation gets censored. Isn’t the tour supposed to be supporting the alternative and battling against the norms of society? I guess swearing just goes too far and that right there drops my appreciation for the disc down a few notches.

Other than that though, the Vans Warped Tour 2008 Compilation does just what it always does: introduces some new bands while reinforcing some old.

It starts off rather predictably with Against Me!‘s New Wave, a great song by one of the most talked about bands of the last year. From then on it goes to bands like Story of the Year, Bedouin Soundclash, Flogging Molly, Relient K, Norma Jean, Mayday Parade, Our Last Night, Gym Class Heroes and so on. A rather eclectic selection of bands that all somehow have found a home under the “punk” or “alternative” moniker despite what some people may believe. Going from the hard-core acts like As I Lay Dying to the pure pop enigma of Cobra Starship can be off putting and sometimes rather irritating when it hits a band or style you can’t stand (for me that would be the likes of Alesana, Four Year Strong, The Academy Is…, 3OH!3 and so on); but Warped Tour has grown with that dichotomy and just like at the show, if there’s a band playing you don’t like you just need to walk over and and find one that you do.

The real gem of this compilation is, and always as been, its ability to introduce the listener to new acts; and this year is the first time in a while that the compilation has been able to introduce me to quite a few new bands. My favourite bands do already make appearances like The Briggs, The Matches, and The Gaslight Anthem but as you get to the later end of each disc SideOne has squished in some bands I had never heard of before, and some which I truly want to hear more from. The Randies‘ Luxury is a perfect pop-punk tune that would have fit in last year’s Pop-Punk’s Not Dead compilation and Oreskaband‘sYeah! Ska Dance sounds like a refreshed Dance Hall Crashers and who couldn’t love that? The Fabulous Rudies sounds like Buck-o-Nine and Confide supplies the sole post-hardcore track on the album which makes it stand out like crazy. It gives the listener a glimpse at some bands they may not have heard before and lets them decide whether or not to check out more by them.

The compilation has become a yearly tradition just like the tour itself; and just like the tour itself it has its ups and downs and will “never be as good as it used to be.” Still, it has the high potential of introducing you to new bands and that makes it worth the low sticker price. I just hope they don’t censor it next time.