With New Year’s Eve less then two weeks away the white belt sporting, girl pants wearing crowd is scrambling to nail down three things; whose parents will be out of town, who will buy them their candy coated barely alcoholic drinks, and what music will they party to. Luckily for the fashionable crowd, MC Goldie Wilson has whipped up the perfect New Year’s Eve party album. Anniversary is an ingenious release that draws together pop-punk, hip-hop and dance beats. It’s a mixed bag of tricks has shows off some pretty tight seams. While never sounding unfocused or confused, the album is constantly moving in polar opposite directions. The instrumentation is purely organic, but the parts are looped. The beat is pulsing, but it isn’t clubby. The vocal delivery is hip-hip hop, but the pop-punk instrumentation makes the vocals seem decidedly rock. Wilson is in a league of his own. In comparison to his closest counterparts, his songs are punkier then MC Lars and more stripped down then Head Automatica. Dare it be said, Anniversary, a pop-punk album, is downright original. While the album stands out as an original creation, Wilson still has songwriting kinks to work out. “Spring Break 1871” masterfully opens the album with a multi-layered booty-shaking chorus, but the album struggles to sustain momentum. The tracks begin to manifest an unnerving repetitive sameness. The mockingly titled “Sad Kids Can’t Dance” almost reclaims the glory of “1871” but lyrics like, “She’s got a body like a battle ship, battle ship. She’s got a booty like an aircraft carrier” may turn off discerning music fans. Although the rump shakers among us may not want to party to a song about the struggles of US Patent office workers, deeper lyrical content couldn’t hurt. Even though Anniversary is rough around the edges, it showcases a musician ripe with potential striving to forge his own sound a sea of relative oneness. Fashion core kids take heed, “Spring Break 1871” is a must have for your New Year’s Eve mix tapes.

Self Released

www.myspace.com/mcgoldiewilson