Product Review
Thirteen artists pay homage to the legacy of modern ska-punk forefathers Operation Ivy, the Berkeley, California quartet (1987-1989) that launched an army of imitators in later years. (Op Ivy's Matt Freeman and Tim "Lint" Armstrong continued their Clash worship by founding Rancid in the early 1990s.) While most of Take Warning remains faithful to Op Ivy's bratty, hard-nosed stylings, some pranksters (notably The Aquabats) take liberties and inject some of their own personality into the antic frenzy. --Mark Woodlief

If you want to listen to Operation Ivy, throw in Energy or Seedy or whatever. This obviously isn't Operation Ivy, so if you like their songs but don't mind hearing them played differently, then give this one a chance. Indeed, a lot of them are slowed down a bit, notably Smiling and Yellin' in My Ear. If you just cannot come to terms with some of these songs being played significantly slower, then this just isn't for you. I found it interesting to hear them being played so differently, and they seemed to have as much energy as the original (refraining from obvious puns here). Anyway, I am enjoying this cd. It was also fun to read the liner notes, explaining the song choices of the various bands. It's not really blowing me away or changing my worldview, or even introducing me to new bands as I already know most of them, but it's fun. And what did you expect from getting the aquabats to cover a song on here? It's amusing, yes, but perhaps a bit too over the top, so it was a good decision to put theirs last..