Reggie and the Full Effect - Greatest Hits '84-'87
Two for the Road / Second Nature
This album came with a sticker saying it had members of Get Up Kids and
Coalesce in it, so I wasn't sure what to expect. And when I popped the disc
in and the music started, it was a pretty hard guitar riff, so I thought it
was going to sound a lot like Coalesce. Reggie doesn't really sound like
either of the bands that compose it. Instead, they sound much more like
Weezer. The guys in this band have written some of the most infectiously
poppy songs I've heard in awhile. Listen to this album once or twice and
you'll have the words and melodies stuck in your head forever.
In-jokes and random quotes seperate the songs on this album, and even
though I don't quite get the point of them, they still make me laugh.
Reggie utilizes the almost-ubiquitous-on-an-indie-pop-record Moog
synthesizer, and it adds a nice touch to the songs.
The songs are all pretty standard pop songs -- they're generally about girls --
but the way Reggie play them is extremely energetic. All the pop cliches come
into play on this album: hand claps, counting "1,2,3,4", incredibly catchy
choruses, etc, but for some reason they don't seem tired at all. I think it
must be the combination of Reggie's penchant for writing some of the most
catchy pop songs ever that somehow negates the effects of all the cliches
they've used. In any case, it doesn't matter, as the songs all rock out.
Although there are only nine songs on this album, they combine perfectly
with the aforementioned in-jokes and quotes and provide quite an enjoyable
listening experience. Reggie and the Full Effect ultimately come across as
something that the kids will dig. And although their parents might be put
off by the harder guitar riffs, they'll probably let the band spend the
night in their basement anyway, because they sound like such nice, cute
boys.
...john heisel...
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