In case you’re not familiar, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes are a punk rock covers supergroup on Fat Wreck that first unleashed ‘Have A Ball’ in 1997, and have been irritating and entertaining in equal measures since. ‘Are We Not Men? We Are Diva!’ is their eighth full length effort, and here (perhaps you guessed it) they take on diva classes by the likes of Gloria Gaynor and Celine Dion.
If you’re familiar with the Gimme Gimmes then you can probably guess what ‘Diva!’ sounds like back to front. It’s very much mid-nineties punk goes pop (but with far better arrangements and less silly beat downs the Fearless compilations), but the covers of ‘On The Radio’ (Donna Summer), ‘I Will Always Love You’ (Celine Dion) and ‘Karma Chameleon’ (Culture Club) are excellent and The Gimmes have produced another stack of great renditions here.
If you think punk covers are silly, then you’re probably not going to be converted by this motley crew covering Christina Aguilera, but the band are genuinely great at reworking classics and there’s not a duff effort in sight. Anyone that doesn’t get excited by Fat Mike’s (NOFX) bass intro on ‘Straight Up’ (Paula Abdul) or Chris Shiflett’s (Foo Fighters) solo in ‘On The Radio’ probably doesn’t have a soul, and with Dave Raun (Lagwagon) and Joey Cape putting in fine shifts on drums and guitar respectively underneath the distinctive punk rockaoke vocals of Spike Slawson (Swingin’ Utters), it’s easily the best sounding Gimmes album to date.
TOM AYLOTT