Misfits - Project 1950 (2003)
Somewhere after the last studio album, "Famous Monsters", the band went through a minor line-up change, and by "a minor line-up change" I mean LITERALLY EVERYONE BUT JERRY ONLY LEFT THE FUCKING BAND. Michale Graves left, Dr. Chud left, and even Jerry's fucking BROTHER Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein left!! What the hell happened?! Oh well, now Jerry's on bass AND vocals, and he's accompanied by Dez Cadena (of Black Flag fame) on guitar and Mark Ramone (of Ramones fame) on drums. Now, Black Flag was pretty hardcore, and the Ramones, while not my cup of tea, had some pretty decent songs at times, so where does this lead us? Where do the Misfits go in their discography?! Jerry Only has had experienced playing hardcore punk and even heavy metal influenced material, so the only logical option to REALLY give fans what they want is to release an album full fairly faithful covers of songs from the 1950s. Funny side-note: The only picture I could find of the line-up has Nardwuar in it, who is PUNK ROCK AS FUCK!!
You really have to change what you're expecting when it comes to this album because if you imagine them ripping through these songs like they would've back in the day, you're fucked. These are all pretty faithful covers of the original songs with minor changes, like obviously more guitar chugging, but past that, it begs the question of "Why even record this?" and also another even more interesting one of "Why release this under the Misfits name?!" and I don't have an answer for either. I don't think it could've been motivated by money, because there wasn't really a market for them to try to sell this to: Misfits fans probably don't give a shit about music from the 1950s, and people who love 1950s music mostly don't give a shit about the Misfits.
Dodging all of that, let's get right into it: Michale Graves was a great replacement for Glenn Danzig because he sounded nothing like him, therefore allowing him to put his signature footprint on the music, but on this album, on his first full-length attempt to prove himself to the fanbase, Jerry Only sounds like he's trying his damned hardest to imitate Glenn Danzig's signature Elvis-like voice, and I -KNOW- that's not how he normally sings because I've heard other Misfits material with him on vocals!! Hell, even the bonus tracks from the 2014 re-release will show you that he sounds like a completely different person on virtually any of their other material, and not for the better. That being said, he actually has a pretty good voice for this shit, real "I'm the leader of a gang called the Razor Snakes and we all have cool leather jackets, now it's time for our organized dance-number" shit, you know what I'm talking about.
Truth be told, I have a soft spot for these covers because I got into this album pretty quickly when I first got into the Misfits (pre-"The Devil's Rain") and was actually kinda excited by the fact that they performed these songs well, as a "Fuck you, dad, they can play SHITTY old music if they want to!!" kinda thing, but no matter how good (read: "good", not "great") some of these covers can be, they're fucking novelties. Did anyone REALLY want to hear Misfits cover "This Magic Moment", "Dream Lover" or "Great Balls of Fire"?! The band that's made "Last Caress", "I Turned into a Martian", or even the entirety of "Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood"?! Does Jerry Only even know what band he's in?! What the ACTUAL FUCK IS THIS?! Answer: An okay covers album, but a bad Misfits album, so that leaves me conflicted with a score to give it, but whatever. I've got other shit to worry about, like Jerry Only not putting out new Misfits™ Crocs that I can wear with my Misfits™ socks while wearing my ™™™™™Misfits™™™™™ American Flag Crimson Ghost shirt with the unfortunate side effect of looking like a complete and utter fucking moron from the shirt alone.
6/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
