Reggie And The Full Effect

Reggie And The Full Effect: Songs Not To Get Married ToSongs Not To Get Married To (2005)
Vagrant Records

Reviewer Rating: 3

User Rating:

Contributed by: AubinAubin
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on April 8th 2005It may be cliché to say, but adversity really does tend to bring out the best in people. Take the recent effort from Reggie And The Full Effect, Songs Not To Get Married To. It's hardly a secret that much of the album is inspired by James Dewees' recent divorce, and the result is the most solid coll.

It may be cliché to say, but adversity really does tend to bring out the best in people. Take the recent effort from Reggie And The Full Effect, Songs Not To Get Married To. It's hardly a secret that much of the album is inspired by James Dewees' recent divorce, and the result is the most solid collection of tracks from the project since Greatest Hits 84-87.

With Songs..., Dewees has ditched his goofy 'Paco' alter ego, and some, though not all, of the accompanying silliness. The past two records from the band saw a handful of strong tracks interspersed with far too many "joke" songs, and my experience with the growing ratio of jokes to songs on past albums certainly had me responding as I often do to joke albums; funny the first time, second time I'll skip.

The opening track "What The Hell is Contempt?" sees Dewees balancing his gentler singing with the raging id of Coalesce vocalist Sean Ingram, while "Get Well Soon" sees him becoming reacquainted with the arena size indie rock that populated the first few Get Up Kids discs. Some may complain that the carefree, pop songwriting of Dewes is all but absent from Songs..., but in a sense, this darker, more melancholic record seems to have more long-term bite than the more transitory sounds of the two records which preceded it.

In one sense, Dewees doesn't stray far from the established sound of the band; it is still flush with thick guitars, fluid keyboard work and the occasionally dalliance into metal and 80's synth rock, but what has changed, certainly, is the tone of the compositions. A track like the raging "Trooth" would likely not have fit in so easily on Under The Tray, and its full on blast of metallic hardcore is as close as we're likely to get to a Coalesce reunion. (I say this now, but with the Casket Lottery defunct, it might actually happen. Cross your fingers.)

The record is still a little more laboured in its songwriting than the effortless poppy bliss of Greatest Hits 1984-1987, and some of the concept tracks in the second half of the record do fall flat, but with that in mind, the addition of a little gravitas has certainly re-inspired the Dewees songwriting machine, and that certainly isn't a bad thing.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

branden (November 16, 2006)

this cd is like nu-metal

ABedForLiars (September 4, 2006)

Wow, James Dewees really could've done better. This album has some pretty horrible moments.

Anonymous (November 28, 2005)

not impressed, they sounded a lot better live when u were touring with my chemical romance, im not sure how reggie and the full effect got arecord deal for songs not to get married to

md40_07 (October 10, 2005)

this is a great CD...The Fuck Stops here has to be my favorite song on the CD, but overall great CD and its amazing that he can sing excpetionally well when he can barley even talk

Anonymous (May 10, 2005)

Anyone who doesn't like this album knows nothing of music.
~Fin.~

Anonymous (April 16, 2005)

very,very good!!!

Anonymous (April 14, 2005)

this joke stopped being funny in 1999

fuck james dewees

Manman (April 13, 2005)

Reggie and the Full Effect have one good song. You can hear it on Emogame.com.... that is the only good one. That song gets the nine for complete rockicity and a dash of cool-beans. The rest of them could just rot in ignominy like the hordes that have gone on before to be forgotten by the masses and sink into oblivion. Reggie, your full effect has been neutralized. It is now Reggie and the Half Effect.

Karl_With_a_K (April 12, 2005)

reggie makes me want to cry

Anonymous (April 11, 2005)

go listen to hatebreed you 30 year old jock.

(that was to sickboi)

sickboi (April 11, 2005)

More like "Songs not to listen to"...

8dollarclarinetsolo (April 11, 2005)

this is terrible

Anonymous (April 11, 2005)

That dwarf song he has is fucking awful.

-Chinatown

Anonymous (April 11, 2005)

Score is for Wedding Music

Anonymous (April 11, 2005)

I finally got my first taste of reggie at the cleveland NFG show...eh. Not impressed. the gimmicky stuff wasn't funny and was just kind of homo-erotic and lame. the power pop songs were alright...i was pretty underwhelmed. i don't see how people get so into these guys.

he does add nicely to NFG though and seems like a fun guy (dewees that is)

paul

Anonymous (April 10, 2005)

"Best song they ever made is "Megan Is My Friend To The Max"

Long live Wesley Willis! May he rest in peace.

Jim

ubershep (April 10, 2005)

"I've never listened to this band, can anyone reccomend me a good album to check out?"

None

TheEvilMonkey (April 9, 2005)

Best song they ever made is "Megan Is My Friend To The Max"

Anonymous (April 9, 2005)

I agree that Greatest Hits gives the most music bang for your buck (Promotional Copy and Under the Tray have a lot of skits on them), I also believe, however, that through each CD the music itself has evolved and become a lot more interesting and solid. Really, I would say the best way to do it is to try to grab a couple of mp3's from each album and see what you think.

Here are some of my personal favorites:
"Your Girlfriends Hate Me" - Greatest Hits
"What's Wrong" - Greatest Hits
"The Fellowship of the Bling" - Greatest Hits (Reissue)
"Thanx For Stayin" - Promotional Copy
"Congratulations Smack and Katy" - Under the Tray
"Happy V-Day" - Under the Tray
"What the Hell is Contempt" - Songs Not to Get Married To
"Get Well Soon" - Songs Not to Get Married To

Anonymous (April 9, 2005)

you should check out the rerelease of greatest hits 84-87
probably the best mix of stuff on that one and not so many skits that it gets annoying like under the tray is

Anonymous (April 9, 2005)

I've never listened to this band, can anyone reccomend me a good album to check out?

lou (April 9, 2005)

sounds like they were both fucking everyone but each other.

Anonymous (April 9, 2005)

"Furthermore, last spring, Dewees decided to split from Megan, his wife of a year and a half."

"[Even though] it was my choice and my [decision to get divorced], in that situation you're in a panic moment. You don't know what to do. [But] I'm not bitter."

"She's pregnant with someone else's kid! I'm just trying to move on with my life."

Anonymous (April 9, 2005)

"correction. she divorced him"

in the Alt.Press this month with weezer on the cover, it mentions he divorced her.

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

"Somewhat related, I was listening to the radio yesterday coming home from class, and they played an old Anniversary song, and it reminded me how fucking awesome they were in their Designing a Nervous Breakdown era"

Retro is... enough time passing that people forget that the Anniversary always sucked.

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

I'll that I've heard so far was the new song by Klaus of Common Denominator... "Go buy T-shirt!"

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

great review. It actually makes me want to *shudders* drive to Best Buy.

Hopefully, it'll be worth it.

Anyways, Hate to be the guy to do it, but it freakin works.

http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=17158761

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

I love this album. Good review.

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

this cd is top quality

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

this beat is deathnotronic

skajester (April 8, 2005)

There was a Coalesce reunion. Three years ago.

The flyer's hanging six feet from me. They played one BIG reunion show, and a coupl,e of smaller shows here and there, and then were done with it.

SethCohen (April 8, 2005)

Somewhat related, I was listening to the radio yesterday coming home from class, and they played an old Anniversary song, and it reminded me how fucking awesome they were in their Designing a Nervous Breakdown era

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

Personally I love this cd, I enjoy all the songs. My favorite songs from the cd are: Get Well Soon, Take Me Home Please, Thanks for the Misery, and Playing Dead. Not to mention it's great to see peoples freaked out reactions when they hear you listening to Love Reality. I give it two thumbs way up the ass... meaning very good.

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

This is a damn good album. one of their best.

adamfromohio (April 8, 2005)

correction. she divorced him

i had no idea he liked to fuck so much

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

yeah, but he divorced her.

Cos (April 8, 2005)

yeah, and its not much of a secret this guy was cheating on his wife left and right. He's made some good tunes and all, but just doesn't seem like the nicest guy in the world

Anonymous (April 8, 2005)

What The Hell is Contempt is with the lead singer of from autumn to ashes and he is on another song too and the lead singer of coalesce is on a different song

cubaricho (April 8, 2005)

Fiya review

jeffwithoneeff (April 8, 2005)

"get well soon" is such a good song

maverick (April 8, 2005)

This record is super-heavy, musically. It's also really fun live (I just got home from seeing them open for New Found Glory). Aubin said it right: It's the best album since 84-87.

-Scott

swingline (April 8, 2005)

i can't stand 3/4 of this cd

colin (April 8, 2005)

this record is growing on me. it does a good job of staying reggie while totally being different at the same time. good for james for that alone - even if it isn't the best rock and roll, he can make his band sound many different ways but still have an altogether coherence.

i-type-poorly (April 8, 2005)

No big deal here. Good music, but probably something i'll forget about by the end of the year. The best achievement of this album is making a song full of crunchy guitars and screaming, and still have a track by Common Denominator that stands out.