Last year I interviewed New Found Glory drummer Cyrus Bolooki about the possibility of another cover album in similar fashion to the band's From the Screen to Your Stereo. He stated that it was a possibility... Well here we are a year removed from said interview and sitting before me is From the Screen to Your Stereo Pt. 2 And while the rest of his bandmates didn't go along with his choice of covering "You're the Best" from The Karate Kid, they did choose a number of gems from films spanning the last couple of decades.
From the Screen to Your Stereo Pt. 2 is comprised of eleven songs taken from quite a variance of films. The band take the originals and reinterpret them - for the most part - into the pop-punk meets pop rock formula that New Found Glory has perfected over their years as a band.
The album kicks off with the first single, "Kiss Me," from the teen-flick She's All That. Originally performed by Sixpence None the Richer pretty much a one-hit wonder New Found Glory boost the song's intensity up with slightly more aggressive guitars than were used in the original. Obviously the glaring difference is vocalist Jordan Pundik's vocals as opposed to the female of the original. "It Ain't Me Babe" from the recent Johnny Cash bio-pic Walk the Line follows. Bob Dylan originally wrote this song, but it was popularized when Cash and June Carter reworked it. Well, New Found Glory give it life once again, sticking with the country twang of Cash and Carter, but adding in more pop-style with guitarist Chad Gilbert's new wife, Sherri of Eisley helping out on vocals. These two songs seem to be easy transitions from their originals to what New Found Glory did with them.
New Found Glory demonstrates their skills as songwriters with their cover of When in Rome's "The Promise" from Napoleon Dynamite. They take the British-based group's electronic song and effortlessly transform it into a pop-punk number. I really disliked the original version of this song, but man does this sucker jam now! "The King of Wishful Thinking" is another cover of a British band - seems to be a trend on this version of From the Screen to Your Stereo. Every girl loves Pretty Woman, though I don't know why, so it only makes sense to capitalize on that if you're a pop-punk band with lots of female fans. Those same girls love Fall Out Boy, so adding vocalist Patrick Stump into the mix makes even more sense. And again, New Found Glory one-up a song that I didn't particularly like and make it super enjoyable.
Just as teenage girls love Pretty Woman, teenage boys love Lisa Loeb - or at least I did when I was a teenager and heard this song. My guess is that the guys in New Found Glory were just like me and more than stoked when they actually got Loeb to sing on their version of "Stay (I Missed You)." The song is fairly true to the original, just a tad more upbeat with the punk-ish guitars. Speaking of girls, let's talk about "Love Fool." The Cardigans were a female-fronted pop band from Sweden of all places. Somehow these guys scored a hit with this song thanks to the Leonardo DiCaprio version of Romeo & Juliet. Personally, I liked the Garbage song from the movie better. Nevertheless, Taking Back Sunday's Adam Lazzara and Eisley's Stacy Dupree spice things up with their vocal talents.
Movie-penned songs and "Iris" are synonymous. When this Goo Goo Dolls single first came out, you couldn't get away from it. I like this song a lot, except for the fact that it makes me think of City of Angels. Seriously, who writes a script where an angel becomes mortal for a woman, only to have the woman die. Fuck that shit! I demand a re-write. New Found Glory's version is good; I don't think it can match the power of the original, but its great for sing-alongs.
Growing up in the 80's, I loved John Hughes movies. And while I wasn't as obsessed as Kevin Smith, I own nearly every film he's done. If ever there were a punk kid in the Hughes world, it would be Judd Nelson's character in The Breakfast Club, John Bender. Though I think that Bender would be too punk to listen to this pop version. In fact, I doubt he would have listened to the Simple Minds original either.
New Found Glory throw us a curveball with "J'y Suis Jamais Alle" from Amélie. The movie is good, but covering this song seemed to be kind of out of place. I'm sure the New Found Glory guys adore this movie, but there are better choices of songs to cover than this. They follow this up with "Crazy for You," originally written by Madonna for Vision Quest. I never saw this movie, but I somehow knew the words to this entire song. I blame my older sister; she liked Madonna. I taped over her True Blue cassette tape with some punk band when we were little and I got grounded. I still think it was worth the punishment.
From the Screen to Your Stereo Pt. 2 concludes with a cover of Tears for Fears "Head Over Heals" - yet another British band! This song was used in the teen cult hit Donnie Darko. I'm just glad that the guys of New Found Glory didn't choose to cover "Mad World;" I think I've heard about ten different covers of that song already.
After putting my thoughts to words on From the Screen to Your Stereo Pt. 2, I realize this seems less like a review and more like diary entry. But this is what happens when you dwell on songs from your past, you draw up personal memories about the times you heard the songs. And that's likely the reason why New Found Glory included these specific songs on this album as opposed to other songs. Each song is held close their hearts for one reason or another. So pick this up and prepare to reminisce.
