Bowling For Soup’s Songs People Actually Liked- Volume 1- The First 10 Years (1994-2003) is the band’s first authorized greatest hits album. Instead of throwing together previously recorded tracks that can already be heard on previously released albums, Bowling For Soup decided to rerecord the tracks without changing the arrangements, which was a brilliant decision. As a result, BFS fans get their earnest pop-punk without being distracted by some songs having sharper production values than others.
Songs People Actually Liked- Volume 1 shows Bowling for Soup before the band decided to focus on making humorous songs. This means no “1985,” which came out in 2004. Because there are few attempts at forced humor, this is a better album than Volume 2 will be. The only songs purposely striving for laughs are “Girl All the Bad Guys”, “Punk Rock 101,” and the new song “20 Years (That’s A Lot of Beers).” The former are Bowling for Soup classics, while the latter sums up the bands history as a band and is more in spirit to post-2003 Bowling for Soup, making a great song seem out of place here.
This album is perfect for people introduced to Bowling for Soup through “Almost” and “1985,” but who haven’t had the opportunity to explore the bands back catalog. With songs like “Scope,” “2113,” and “Kool Aid,” Songs People Actualy Liked is everything one could want or expect from a Bowling for Soup album.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Bowling For Soup’s Songs People Actually Liked- Volume 1- The First 10 Years (1994-2003) is available on January 27th, click here to pre-order.
===========================================================================================================================================
Allison Lips is the Founder of Wait! What’s a Dial?, a television blog that showcases the writing of millennials. Allison graduated from Rowan University in May 2013. She has a passion for TV history, especially late night and game shows. If she could go back in time, Steve Allen would still be hosting The Tonight Show. Follow her on Twitter @waitwaitsadial.
====================================================================================
