Various Artists - Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault: Jawbreaker Tribute

Having been one of the most influential alt-punk-pop bands of the 90's, it's about time that a Jawbreaker tribute album sees the light of day. Named after a song from their classic Dear You, this compilation pays homage, somewhat, to the legendary trio. As most tributes go, there are always a couple outstanding cuts, a lot of mediocrity, and then just a bunch of crap bringing up the rear. The stand-out cuts come from Duvall, Counterfit doing "Million", Fifteen member Jeff Ott's rendition of "Better Half", and, despite their inability to write good songs themselves, The Riddlin' Kids with "Jinx Removing". Moving on to the mediocre bunch, we got Bigwig and Bayside approaching their contribution with great respect to the original, but not exactly bringing the most exciting material to the table. Shockingly, Face to Face did not even begin to build any interest with their take on "The Boat Dreams From the Hill" - I just expected more from those guys. The Aeffect is the first band on the set to really try varying the style of the original by doing "Boxcar" electronically; it's intially interesting, but then fades into dull indifference. And, The Reunion Show adds an electric twist to "Unlisted Track", but doesn't add anything special to the album. Yet, despite all the decent material, their are just some tracks on here that are simply garbage. Briefly: Name Taken all but butchers "Want", For Amusement Only and Fall Out Boy should've never attempted Jawbreaker covers, Kill Your Idols' effort is laughable, Sparta will put you to sleep with "Kiss The Bottle", and if you liked the song "Jet Black", do not listen to the Good Night Bad Guy rendition. If you're a die-hard Jawbreaker fan, take warning and don't have any high expectations for this tribute. It does neither Jawbreaker nor its retail price justice. But, if you were actually going to buy this, just take that money and buy a Jawbreaker album, and you'll be more than fulfilled with that. Dying Wish Records had to put a lot of effort into getting this compilation together, it's just a shame that the bands they chose didn't do the same. [www.dyingwish.com]