Album Details

• Artist: Gym Class Heroes
• Album: As Cruel As School Children
• Label: Fueled By Ramen
• Year of Release: 2006
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dadair on 2007-06-21

This flirty full-length from Gym Class Heroes is out like an ordinary school day. Helping this slithery ‘Snakes On A Plane’ accompanying, alternative and hip-hop rooted quartet adopt a youthful approach to life.  In the first and second periods ‘The Queen And I’ and ‘Shoot Down The Stars’, old skool beats and lounge stroking licks are used to draw out their simplistic life views. In the case of the latter offering, some freshness is given to a “be all you can be” message that modern kids probably hear more times than “you’re grounded”.  Travis McCoy flits his soul-stroking projection between a haughty hip-hop/rap stance and a soaring, soul-soothing one.  For the Myspace generation lament of ‘New Friend Request’, he manages to find a groove right in the middle of these two approaches and uses witty observations to draw out the foibles of modern, youthful life;

“Let’s face it; it’s a sad situation when we have to resort to keyboards as a means of making relations.”

Atmospheric interludes bring out reality in this fifteen track trawl though urbane life. Situations like the bar chat up scenario are depicted with honest y and a certain beleaguered drawl, ‘Sloppy Love Jingle Part 1’.    A young Barry White is re-enacted with rustic panache through ‘Viva La White Girl’, as Travis and co truly experiment with their range. Their publicity cause has been helped considerably by their association with Patrick ‘Stumpy’ Stump, who loaned his yearning cry to the brooding previous single, ‘Cupid’s Chokehold’. Nifty sampling and re-jigging of classic tunes give familiarity and a friendly vibe to the project.  The rugged jungle and drum N’ bass vibe that mingles in the gnarl of Eminem against a backdrop of distorted, punchy choral backing for ‘Biter’s Block’, brings the ghetto to your earpiece and the tour guides do seem to speak from a base of familiarity.

Gym Class Heroes have managed to pierce the balloon of many genres to make them a durable live act. Their campaign to push away pompous musical boundaries has started well as shown on As Cruel As School Children.

User Reviews and Comments

Review:

on 2012-02-19 gutterseed Said:

I enjoy this album. I love the lyrics, I love the beats, I love the diversity in songs as well as the flow of the album. The album's style is unique because the lead singer does some very poetic narrating between songs as fillers. I hadn't run into that, it makes the album sound like a live album.
7 weeks is a great song about touring. Most bands complain when it comes to the ugliness of touring, but I think that this song touches on the good and the bad, he pays compliements to his fans, and it has a great "what doesn't kill you make you stronger feel to it."
The album never gets boring. Simple guitar riffs that work, and very passionate heartfelt lyrics. For anyone who's ever been in love with a psycho girl, "queen and I" tells a great story of co-dependency. I love how the album evolves.
"Shoot down the stars" takes a look at just how fragile the most confident person can be. I really love the heartfelt lyrical content on this album.
I can't say I care for the song "clothes off". But I loved the song "New friend request". I even got a little nostalgic about how he expressed his dissapointment about how he didn't make a girl's top 8 on myspace as I really enjoyed being on myspace back in the day, much moreso than facebook. But I think it's a great song with genious lyrics. "This is not an LOL matter" is a great album. And I can't tell you how many times I've looked for signs.
Another album that I can listen to from beginning to end. I haven't heard any other gym class heroes album. A great commentary on the up's and down of high school life. From the flashroom to the bathroom. I'd recommend this album. The beats are tight, the riffs are simple but they really work. Travis is a great songwriter. Gym Class heroes really impressed me with this album
Not Rated

Review:

on 2007-08-08 hstisgod Said:

Autographed copy to the first USER to write 100 words or more about this CD.
Not Rated

Review:

on 2007-07-05 blackxdan Said:

Um, in my personal opinion. This CD was a waste of time to listen to. The only songs that I liked were 'Queen And I' and 'Shoot Down The Stars' both of which were singles. I think this CD is a major step down from 'The Papercut Chronicles'. Gym Class Heroes is simply capable of a better CD. I just really wasn't into this CD at all, and I was a HUGE fan of GCH before this release.
Rating: 3/10