{"id":22594,"date":"2014-05-18T10:05:48","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T10:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-me-first-and-the-gimme-gimmes-are\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:35:18","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:35:18","slug":"album-review-me-first-and-the-gimme-gimmes-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-me-first-and-the-gimme-gimmes-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – Are We Not Me? We Are Diva!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Nothing in the world of punk can warm the soul quite like\u00a0Me First and the Gimme Gimmes<\/strong>. Their power-chord tributes to the classics from every genre under the sun are brimming with joy, humour and fist-pumping attitude. But beyond all this, the songs are more often than not dynamite covers that you can genuinely go crazy to.<\/p>\n

I was excited, therefore, at prospect of the first record in a whopping six years from the\u00a0Fat Wreck Chords<\/strong>\u00a0super-group featuring members of\u00a0NOFX\u00a0(Fat Mike),\u00a0Lagwagon\u00a0(Joey Cape, Dave Raun),\u00a0Foo Fighters\u00a0(Chris Shiflett) and the\u00a0Swingin\u2019 Utters\u00a0(Spike Slawson). I was rather surprised to find that, whilst there are definitely some fine additions to an already very healthy set here, this was the first release from the boys which I found underwhelming.<\/p>\n

Some of the songs just feel like straight-up covers (including their cover of\u00a0\u2018Straight Up\u2019<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Paula Abdul). You expect the\u00a0Gimmes\u00a0<\/strong>to grab a song by the scruff of the neck and whip it into frenzy, with Spike hollering and switching lyrics and generally being a very talented clown of a singer. You expect Joey, Mike and Chris to throw in little tributes to punk and some killer riffs that give the songs a new edge.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Instead, the likes of\u00a0Gloria Gaynor\u2019s\u00a0\u2018I Will Survive\u2019<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Christina\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Beautiful\u2019<\/em>\u00a0just sound like those tracks, but with a man singing and some chugging guitars.\u00a0\u2018My Heart Will Go On\u2019<\/em>\u00a0even sounds like Spike is genuinely in the moment: all very soulful and, dare I say, a little bit cheesy, with the rest of the band giving it a Gaelic vibe. I wouldn\u2019t go so far as to say they take it seriously, but it\u2019s more a case of it feeling like the fun is missing and they\u2019re going through the motions.<\/p>\n

Having said all of this, there are still some absolute zingers on\u00a0\u2018Are We Not Men? We Are Diva!\u2019<\/em>\u00a0Their take on\u00a0Cher\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Believe\u2019<\/em>\u00a0is wonderful. Spike runs out of breathe doing the\u00a0\u201cafter love after love after love after love\u201d\u00a0<\/em>bit at the start before the whole vocoder thing which will have you in stitches. Aside from that it absolutely kicks arse, with all the sing-along moments and epic choruses\/bridges which are prime\u00a0Gimmes<\/strong>\u00a0territory.<\/p>\n

\u2018Karma Chameleon\u2019<\/em>\u00a0is another humdinger, and a great example of how these guys can take bits of popular songs you never even noticed, and sing them with such gusto and zeal that you change your mind about the track completely. Up until now I only ever heard the annoying chorus but when Spike sings on the verse, \u201cI’m a man without conviction, I’m a man who doesn’t know, how to sell a contradiction, you come and go, you come and go<\/em>“, you\u2019re hanging on every word.<\/p>\n

There are certain tracks which are very oddly chosen.\u00a0Gaga\u2019s album track\u00a0\u2018Speechless\u2019<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Donna Summer\u2019s\u00a0\u2018On The Radio\u2019<\/em>\u00a0just don\u2019t really have the qualities to work as covers, whilst\u00a0Whitney Houston\u2019s\u00a0\u2018I Will Always Love You\u2019<\/em>\u00a0is just way, way too chorus heavy to structure into a guitar track (although it does show that Spike can sure as hell hold a note).<\/p>\n

This is, after all, a\u00a0Gimmes<\/strong>\u00a0album, and you\u2019re still going to get a kick from blasting it out of your stereo on a car journey with the sun in your eyes. By most band\u2019s standards it\u2019s a good cover album, but we\u2019ve come to expect something pretty special from\u00a0Me First and the Gimme Gimmes<\/strong>, and this doesn\u2019t honestly live up to its predecessors.<\/p>\n

3\/5<\/p>\n

‘Are We Not Me? We Are Diva!’<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Me First and the Gimme Gimmes<\/strong>\u00a0is out now on Fat Wreck Chords<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes<\/strong> links: Website<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Alex Phelan (@listen_to_alex<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing in the world of punk can warm the soul quite like\u00a0Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Their power-chord tributes to the classics from every genre under the sun are brimming with joy, humour and fist-pumping attitude. But beyond all this, the songs are more often than not dynamite covers that you can genuinely go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5879,9996,607,7428],"class_list":["post-22594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-album-reviews","tag-are-we-not-me-we-are-diva","tag-fat-wreck-chords","tag-me-first-and-the-gimme-gimmes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlbum Review: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Are We Not Me? 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