The ever-charitable
Sub City Records is at it again, but unlike previous
Take Action! volumes, which focused their messages (and a percentage of sales) on suicide prevention, 2008's compilation has been put together to benefit Do Something, a non-profit that provides grants to kids wanting to make a difference in their communities. Another worthy cause, another worthy compilation. But look past the altruistic detail, and the compilation is only worthy in the sense that it's pretty cheap (under $10) for offering 20 tracks and 20 music videos. Fans of the
Warped Tour and
Bamboozle will already know these bands -- the bright and driving
pop-punk of
All Time Low,
Motion City Soundtrack's shimmering
emo-
power pop,
the Bled's throat-shredding mosh-core -- but the sad fact is that they'll probably already know most all of these songs. There are no unreleased tracks, demos, B-sides, live cuts -- nothing but studio tracks from old albums, some even dating back to 2006. The closest any songs get to being any sort of prize inclusion are the contributions from
the Matches and
From First to Last; their newest albums are coming out right around this one, so fans have a small window for those songs to be new and unreleased. Otherwise,
Volume 7 is merely a repackaging of old cuts --
Every Time I Die,
Chiodos, and
Haste the Day for the harder-edged crowd;
Mayday Parade,
Valencia, and
Meg & Dia for the poppier crowd. It's undeniably a lot of music for a small price, and the supplementary DVD of music videos may make the purchase worth it for some, but even good intentions aren't enough to cover up the fact that this volume seems little more than a mixtape from a friend who doesn't realize you've already downloaded these songs and learned all the words months ago. ~ Corey Apar