Gym Class Heroes has made their mark by producing fun, party music that appeals to a wide range of musical tastes. Their latest work, As Cruel As School Children, delivers all that and then some.
The band is made up of lead vocalist Travis McCoy, who met drummer Matt McGinley in gym class in high school, when both said they felt more like “gym class zeros than heroes” and fell outside the “cool kids” clique.
Although I was more zero than hero in high school, what won me over is the band's blend of rap with pop and rock, which at the hands of some could be a total mess, but with these guys equals a stab at pop culture backed by great dance beats.
The Geneva, New York-based 4-piece band inspired by the likes of Radiohead, Phil Collins, and Hall & Oates, mixes funk and R&B. More danceable and polished than the Beastie Boys, Gym Class Heroes mixes hints of the laid-back Jamiroquai with punk of N.E.R.D. and funk of Price to create a hip-hop rock/pop/funk blend that’s suitable for all audiences.
As Cruel As School Children is almost too cool for school, with all the tracks labeled either “periods” (as in 1st period, 2nd period) and “lunch,” “study hall,” “yearbook club” and “detention” to keep the theme going.
My favorite of the bunch is the 180-degree reworking of Jermaine Stewart's "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off", this time with the chorus stating "We have to take our clothes off."
Along the same lines, "Cupid's Chokehold" appropriates Supertramp's "Breakfast in America” with the phrase "Take a look at my girlfriend / She's the only one I got."
Among the more diverse workings on the album are Travis McCoy’s take on freestyle rap on "Sloppy Love Jingle, Pts. 1-3," a trio of a cappella raps.
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