Reggie and the Full Effect

Pomotional Copy (2000)

WussEmoRock

Everyone knows who The Get Up Kids are, but does everyone know that James DeWees, the keyboardist of TGUK have a side project called Reggie and the Full Effect? Probably.

James, and whoever else he can get to play on his records definitely know how to write some rocking tunes. This is one CD that cannot be classified under any genre, because it is different in every song. One second you will be hearing the pop-punk sounds of "From Me 2 U," and next you will here a slower song called "Congratulations Matt and Christine." After every few songs, Reggie puts in some techno beats, whether it be a beat that quickly drifts into the tune after it, or if it is a tune he turned into a song such as "Boot to the Moon Wad and Wayne Jentry and…" If you don't think that this is enough, he always has some "harder" sounding songs on it, including a hilarious song called "Dwarf Invasion." Although some of these songs may strike you as quite funny and clever, they do get tiresome after awhile.

If you don't like pop-punk or goofy songs, then this is definitely not the record for you to pick up. You either love it (and then get tired of it), or hate it and find it incredibly annoying. But, this CD does show some great talent on the keyboard, and it incorporates in a lot of the songs a drum machine to help keep the beat. Now, if you still aren't excited enough to check out this album, go ahead and listen to these two songs, "Gloves" and "Ode to Manheim Steemroller," my favorite tracks on the record.