This is a compilation CD put together by SideCho Records on behalf of the American Red Cross, to be used as a giveaway for teens who give blood during Warped Tour stops in Southern California. That said, one has to expect teen-friendly, highly accessible music that is catchy and easy to listen to without being extremely musically profound. This is exactly what you get on this comp. Most of the tracks fall into the pop/emo genres and most of the songs sound exactly like one another. There were no real musical letdowns on this CD, but there were also few musical highlights. The real highlight in this CD was a blistering intro provided by Street Drum Corps that has a sort of “Stomp”-meets-‘90s hip-hop feel to it. A band called This is Me Smiling put together one of the most inventive tracks on here with an interesting mix of male and female vocals that led to a sort of 1950s’ pop sound mixed with modern emo. All-American Rejects, Yellowcard, Motion City Soundtrack, Mae, Plain White T’s, and Cartel also lend their talents to the cause, providing tracks that are much like ones their fans would expect of them. No songs push any sort of musical envelope and produce a real easy listening comp in the process. Overall, no track really made me excited, but no track was really disappointing either. That said, I think this CD is a great idea to get teens to donate blood. In fact, if I were one of those kids who was into the emo/pop-punk scene, I would happily trade a pint of my blood for this compilation.

(SideCho Records, 2698 Junipero Ave., Suite 101A, Signal Hill, CA, 90755)