Sounds good

I'm not much for music reviews, but I can certainly appreciate it when recording artists are inspired by other recording artists. It is only after spending several years with my best friend Chuck H. am I able to turn a keen ear to most music and notice when something is / isn't borrowed from Green Day's arsenal of albums.

Lately, I've been listening to a couple of songs by Sum 41. In particular "Walking Disaster" and "March of the Dogs". Vocally, they sound Blink-182ish. However, these two songs channel Green Day.

The first time I listened to "Walking Disaster", I immediately noticed similar guitar riffs to several songs from American Idiot. The guitars throughout the song are reminiscent of the chords in Green Day's "Letterbomb" as well as the second movement in "Jesus of Suburbia" (think: HEY!... <chugga chugga>... HEY!...) I'd say about nintey percent of the song is fast paced and can be interpreted in different ways. Personally, when I listen to the lyrics I think of New Orleans, hurricane Katrina and the aftermath:

"The city's buried in defeat.
I walk along these no named streets..."
The two movements at the beginning and the end of the song pull from "Homecoming" and is somewhat structured like "Wake me up when September Ends". Listen here: YouTube.(audio only)

Their second song, "March of the Dogs" takes me back to Green Day's earlier albums. It seems that Sum 41 took their guitars from the beginning seconds of "Haushinka" from the nimrod. album. The more I listen to it, the more I think that it also borrows from Insomniac and "Panic Song". The lyrics are probably aimed at Bush:

"Ladies and gentlemen of the underclass,
The president of the United States of America..
Is Dead!"

The story here is not unlike the one told in American Idiot (the song); president's a moron (no head means no brains), the whole damn system is filled with liars, etc. The end of the song comically swings to a style that borrows from the "Tales of another broken home" portion of "Jesus of Suburbia". Listen here: YouTube.(music video)

While I'm not saying that these songs are on the same level as Green Day or any of their albums. What I am saying is that it's good to hear how others take a good idea (American Idiot) and put their own spin on it (Sum 41).

While not nearly mastered as well as Green Day's American Idiot, it's a nice spin on it and definitely worth a listen.