The Simple Plan

Congrats on the hot tub, Pat. I-V-VI-IV. Beato.

If you ever think to yourself "you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover", you can confidently reassure yourself that judging this EP by it's cover is entirely acceptable. Indeed, I'd recommend judging it by the cover over the actual content of the EP. I've mentioned in previous user-submission reviews that suggesting something that has extremely limited distribution is a bit of a troll move. This isn't an album, and does not appear to be available anywhere but Bandcamp. The wikipedia suggests it was self-produced, self-funded, self-distributed - round about the definition of "extremely limited distribution". So dick move by the submitter, number 1. It's an EP. Not an LP. Dick move number 2. As far as dick moves by the submitter go, at least the dick in question is small and inoffensive this time. Dick move number 3 is that this appears to be some kind of emo "meta-comedy" - the cover that you should judge this by is some ridiculously MS-paint thrown together artwork that does - irritatingly - capture the absurdity of the emo movement, 15-plus years after emo. Bravo. In this one bullet point, the dick's movement is back and forth in a gentle, yet compelling manner. As for the music - it's OK. Genuinely OK. Again, it's meta-comedy, using the absurdity of emo to highlight the absurdity of emo. It's not as irritatingly perfect as the "album" (boo, hiss! EP!) art, but it's OK.

A very solid, tough-in-cheek pop punk EP. It's just a few silly little punk songs with good hooks, not much else to say. 8/10

Another for my category of really good record. Probably will give it another listen. However, I would love to hear from the person who chose it why they thought it was 1001 to hear before you die. I couldn’t tell what moved it from a good record to must hear.

This is a wonderful intersection of a joke but the joke is also good

I can't believe that this silly album goes all the way back to 2022. I like Pat Finnerty's stuff, and I'd recommend checking out his YouTube channel if you're not familiar. Not a lot o f videos, but he's a funny and engaging guy who seems really down to earth. This album isn't great, but it is a joke album, so it's hard to fault it for that 3/5? I guess?

I like Pat Finnerty and this was a fun little EP. I don't think EPs should count for this list though. I want to give it a 4 because I enjoyed the 14 minutes of it, but docking a star because it's so short.

August is Falling = Pat Finnerty, a youtuber creating a series called "What Makes This Song Stink". One of the songs that he really hates is "Kryptonite". I don't particularly like this song either, but to keep repeating you hate it, is a bit childish. "Kryptonite" is a boring and uninteresting generic rock song. And that is the problem with this album, The Simple Plan. It is a rather generic and unoriginal pop-punk and emo album. Sounds a lot like Blink-182 and other end of 1990s beginning of 2000s artists. And it sounds dated too. If you blame other for making mediocre music then you will have too make a damn good album yourself to make a point. This album does not do that and will get the same treatment in "What Makes This Album Stink". One star for the effort.

This has got to be a troll pick, right?

scumbagtone@gmail.com

Definitly not the most out standing in it's genre, but was ok

Okay, so some context is in order: Pat Finnerty, bald as shit, has a video series on YouTube called What Makes This Song Stink. In a video covering the song Emo Girl by Machine Gun Kelly, Finnerty took it upon himself to produce a satire song of 2000s-era emo-pop-punk, complete with a music video and an outfit sourced from Hot Topic. He released the song, Mad This Summer, under the pseudonym August is Falling. It's pretty good, despite the low ceiling of quality for satire songs. This song was part of a larger gag that Finnerty dubbed The Simple Plan (no doubt named after the pop punk band Simple Plan), which consisted of "write bullshit pop punk song" and would eventually lead to him owning a hot tub. I don't think Finnerty ever meant for August is Falling to be more than a one-song project, but it was eventually revealed at the end of the video that he had an EP locked and loaded. A follow-up video explained that he had the EP mixed and ready to drop, but that he would release it on the condition that he reached 1,000 members on Patreon. Look, I get it. YouTube is a viable source of income now and he wants to secure that bag, but I don't think The Simple Plan EP was going to be more than a few joke songs that lampoon blink-182 or Fall Out Boy. It's not exactly a key motivator for me to sign up for a monthly membership just to give Pat Finnerty money, as much as I may like his videos. Anyway, I suppose he reached 1,000 patrons because we're here now with The Simple Plan EP. Inside jokes from Finnerty's videos are littered in the lyrics, with one song dedicated to the Blinds To Go Guy. Anyone who hasn't seen Finnerty's videos are not going to appreciate that reference, and that's okay. If anything, it's really a show of this EP's limitations. The only songs I found enjoyable were Mad This Summer and the closer August is Falling, which coincidentally feature the least amount of references to Finnerty's videos. It's not a bad pastiche, but it's also not nearly as good as the sources of inspiration. If I'm gonna draw any inferences from this, it's that this EP is a show of Finnerty's preference for rock over pop songwriting, and pop punk is really best when it puts the pop at the forefront. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: lol no. Also this is not an album.

This is an EP. auto removal feature should be a thing.

An obvious parody of scene era emo, made by the YouTuber Pat Finnerty. It's true to the sound of that genre, but it's painfully unfunny and really comes across as an inside joke that I'm not on the inside for. Should it be in the main list: No Top 3 songs: The Simple Plan, Mad This Summer, August is Falling

It's more an indication of the type of users that are finishing the '1001' and putting forward things like this. Either it's meant to be a joke which is pretty bad that you've wasted your chance to put forward something that deserves to be heard. Or you genuinely like something like this that is so devoid of any shred of originality or creativity it beggars belief

Really? This is the second trolling album in the user submissions so far. Why waste an entry with something like this.

This was offensive. Why, after completing this entire list, would you put this god awful thing? take this seriously people. WHY

So glad for you that you went through 3+ years of mostly history-defining music to put some youtuber's 15 minute EP of unserious "comedy" cringe fake power-emopop on here. 1/10 anything IMO: Belonged in the book? stop it.

Holy stereotype batman!

Swift beats, 90's feel like Green Day, but better

An EP! Short and sweet pop punk

Woww someone is stuck in 2005 And I love it 4 Hey this is an EP. Don't count >:(

What's funny is that composition-wise, this thing beats the crap of the sorts of "pop punk" acts it's supposed to be parodying. Acts such as Blink 182, which I personally dislike a lot -- even if the latter are still ten times better than the Kid Rocks and MGKs the youtuber behind "August Is Falling" is routinely roasting through his "What Makes This Song Stinks?" series... OK, there might be a bit of information overload in that first sentence for anyone who has never heard of Pat Finnerty -- just like me this morning, before this suggestion popped up... So let me rewind things a little... "August Is Falling" is not a real band. The guy on that artwork is not even the guy who wrote and recorded those songs. "August Is Falling" is youtuber Pat Finnerty creating a musical project from scratch with a couple of friends, partly to make fun of the acts he already makes fun of on his channel. Behind the jokes, the guy's a fine musician, and his takedowns are often quite hilarious AND on-point theory-wise. Beato! Why did I interject that last name here? Because Finnerty's whole persona is coming off like a broke, loser version of youtuber Rick Beato, which he often mentions. What about him being a musician and songwriter then? Well, the production of those five songs is not 100% pristine, but it's still a nice enough job for something that probably didn't have a big budget tied to it. And what's a little crazy is how good and catchy most of the choruses are. It's a little as if Finnerty wanted to do a "good" version of the bad songs he talks about on his channels. Him criticizing all those stupid, supposedly "rock" hits also implied that he had to prove his own chops as a musician and writer at some point. And well, that's what he did here. On a general standpoint I would give the guy something like a 7/10 grade. Kid Rock and Blink will never reach those heights for me, of course. There's only one big problem. This is an E.P., not an album. And even if it was, you can't seriously consider this suggestion can join the 5-star galleries of any sane user of this generator. "August Is Falling" is by essence a *derivative* project. So there's no way anyone serious about the selections for this list can take *The Simple Plan EP* *that* seriously. Come back to Earth, please. Final grading: NON PERTINENT. Yeah, it's an EP anyway. Clicking on three stars to make it neutral. Next, please. Of better, "skip" button. ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 112 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 117 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 259 (not even counting this one here because it's not even an album) ---- Émile, *quatre* nouveaux messages pour toi au dessus, du *Solid State Survivor* de Yellow Magic Orchestra au *Atrocity Exhibition* de Danny Brown

Blink and you miss it — was writing up the review from my previous album by the time this one finished. Perfect emo satire, especially Don't Click the Link. Pat Finnerty (the "What Makes This Song Stink?" YouTuber) nailed the early 2000s pop-punk sound with enough self-awareness to make it work. 13 minutes well spent.

Ha, I made it to the second song before I realized that I recognized all this from that Pat Finnerty video that I watched a few years ago. It's a fun enough goof, but I don't have enough invested in loving or hating emo music to evaluate whether this, like, does a "good" job with the genre. Pretty listenable for a mockery, though.

Short and sweet. I didn’t mind this at all and made me want to listen to some emo-pop.

This is album #311 past the 1089 original albums for me; I think I've been pretty good at keeping an open mind, but just looking at this cover makes me want to quit. Oh it's a man in his forties doing a lampoon of 2000s emo. Is that better or worse? Oh it's only 5 songs long, what am I even complaining about. Edit, after I actually listened to it: oh it's actually not bad I think the parody aspect is kind of lost on me for two reasons: one, my insistence that I despised this whole era of pop punk was challenged when I gave not one, but TWO Blink-182 albums 4 out of 5 stars, thanks to this generator. (That's a lot of numbers.) The second reason is that the genre was already so ridiculous to begin with. I have friends that can make me laugh with a couple simple phrases: "tonight will be the night that I will fall for you", and "where are you and I'm so sorry". So funny! A welcome salve to the shared trauma of having grown up in the 2000s. While this E.P. is more amusing than funny to me, I can't bring myself to hate the songs themselves. The "highlight" is probably the second last track. The refrain of "Don't click the link below / We're all gonna fucking die", mixed with the shitty trap beat, sounds like the kind of song I would have unironically liked in junior high. Music to cry in the minivan to HL: "Don't Click The Link (feat. Kim!)", "August is Falling" April 2, 2026

Listen, pop-punk is my number one favourite type of music but it angers me that the user chose this instead of so many other great pop-punk albums. It's not even an album and the songs aren't good, except for the title track, that one was actually decent. Otherwise, this EP has no reason to be on this list.

How funny to get the triple album Diamond Jubilee marathon and this EP back to back. Album list karma! The "joke" reaches its apex with Btgg. I don't care enough about emo to revel in whatever the point of it is. But it's fine.

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: August is falling

I thought it was going to be a flop, but the album is good, and it even holds the record for the shortest album length of all those released up to this point. The music is good, with a great rhythm, and the performer delivers enough. Its weakest track is "Don't Click," but the others are few and far between, yet they hold up well together. Rating: 2.5

The whole thing is kind of a joke but a well composed joke

Pop punk. Slightly better than the band Simple Plan.

This started really rough but won me over. It's ragged and raw but it's got an appeal

3.75

It was fine

Not really my thing but not awful. 2.5 stars, rounding up to 3.

Kind of a mini sampler pack of genres. I always appreciate brevity, increasingly rare in the digital age, but while a competent performance overall this seemed a little thin.

Pop punk, emo pop. Ni fu ni fa.

Short but loud

Hmmm, kinda an irritating pick - Sounds like bog standard pop punk. Perhaps I don't know enough emo / pop punk to really appreciate the satirical elements, but it sounds like, even if I _did_, it's mostly in jokes from this guy's youtube channel? 😒 I'd rate this 3 stars for the music - deducting a punitive 1. Fave track - eh, "Don't Click The Link", let's say.

I don't like emo stuff

I teach a lot of students who could be really good artists bit choose to make fun of others instead. Not a fan.

13 minutes - not an album. Why have so many people suggested "not albums" for a list of albums? Also not very good, certainly not as enjoyable as some of the bands it is spoofing.

The early 2000s were definitely a niche sound with some genres of music. Listening to this actually made me reminisce on MySpace for whatever reason. Creatively you can see why this album was only 14 minutes long and 5 songs. There isn’t much to write home about with the emo rock and hip hop style. I didn’t hate this but this is definitely better left in the past. 5.1/10

Just not one's thing ... seems like decent DIY emo, aping Jimmy EW and FOB but just can't hear much interesting or special. This is the recommender's nephew or something, right, or next door-neighbor's kid? Rounding up because seems likely he was raised with the expectation that participating deserves a trophy.

Going through 3 years of the original list, then submitting a 14-minute long satirical EP making fun of emo pop. Pretty damn awful, but I respect the bit, so I'm incapable of giving this a 1/5.

4/10 I genuinely don’t understand what the point of this was I’m sure it has some purpose in context, the wikipedia page seems to give it some purpose, but it’s really not my thing regardless

This was a decent pop-punk EP, but even after reading the Wikipedia page I don’t understand how it’s notable outside of being made by a YouTuber.

An EP from that youtuber? Uhh okay... I mean it's short but I don't get it. It's not even that interesting pop punk. Is it trying to parody it? Whatever it is, it doesn't work and feels like a waste of a submission. My personal rating: 2/5 My rating relative to the list: 2/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

The Simple Plan EP, 14 minutes of generic emo pop. There's apparently a convoluted backstory as to why this was created in the first place, let alone submitted to this list, but hey, it's bang average and didn't waste my time, 2/5.

Not on Amazon and only one track on YouTube.

Not sure what the motivation to nominate this was - I don’t know anything about this YouTuber except what I’ve read on Wikipedia this morning. It’s got a good poppy punk sound but there’s a lot better versions of that genre if that’s what you’re here for. Some of these songs seem pretty jokey (Blinds To Go Guy/BTGG and Don’t Click The Link). Probably the best song was the title track. I don’t get why this is here…

Good troll

EP. Nothing remotely interesting about it. Inability to tell if the original recommender is even serious. 1/5

I made a tiktok on it… https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNR3bDoot/ 1/5

I’ve watched some of Pat’s videos and I did find them funny. Parody definitely has a place on a list of albums people should listen to, however I don’t think this is it. Not great. Weird al is the obvious choice for a good parody artist to include.

I am torn with this because I don't think EPs should be allowed on this list. However listening to a full length album's worth of this would have been incredibly grating and rough, so I'm happy and thankful it was so short.

Musically, this is fine. But it’s not an album.

Yikes

Are these just rich kids whose parents listened to lots of Green Day?

Love this style of music but this guy is just still very young and amateurish. He's got the chops and hopefully with some practice he can tune his songwriting into something solid.

Bringing out 2004 garbage in 2022, not for me. Almost feels like a bad parody album. One positive it was short