The Reunion Show

Kill Your Television (2002)

bitter

Wow, this record blew me away – with the thick, layered, crunchy walls of sonic bombast coming from the dual guitar attack of the Reunion Show, this album is a solid contender for album of the year with Andrew W.K.'s I Get Wet. Oh wait – no it isn't. This is pathetic useless drivel that rips off the keyboard stylings of the Get Up Kids – and you can't help but think they simply added the keyboards to be "unique".

Maybe I'm just being a pretentious scenester, but I just can't believe that Victory Records – who put out some of the more prominent hardcore records in my collection – actually put out this record. Even being a fan of the pop-punk-emo genre, I find this record hard to swallow. Everything bad about the genre is summarized in this record. From the played-out pop star bashing of the opening track, to overly cheesy song titles (and lyrics) like "On a Scale of One to Awesome (You're Pretty Great)", the Reunion Show make it somewhat difficult to sit through their album. They even have a song called "The New Rock Revolution" – and while I don't claim to listen to much groundbreaking music, the title of the song and the Weezer-ripoff riff behind it definitely makes me giggle and squirm like the thought of giving your parents a spongebath.

I'm having difficulty listening to this entire album knowing that Mr. W.K's album is sitting on my desk. If you are interested in either Victory or emo-pop-punk, I'd recommend Taking Back Sunday; otherwise, this just sounds like the soundtrack to Dawson's Creek.