Boston four-piece Future Teens dropped an excellent LP last year, one weepy enough to conjure up even the most buried pangs of high school heartache. Today, the emo outfit returned with a new EP, Sensitive Sessions, which offers hushed and intimate renditions of songs from Breakup Season. And, in keeping with the band’s Extremely Online bent, they’ve rounded out the collection with a cover of a cut that’s become more meme than song. Of course we’re talking about “All Star.”
“We basically wanted to see how drastically we could change the song,” vocalist/guitarist Daniel Radin said in a press release. “It’s such a classic song, bordering on meme, so we figured we’d try to reframe it so people might be able to listen to the lyrics and structure in a new way.”
Mission accomplished. The cover, which unfolds across nearly six minutes, wrenches every drop of genuine emotion still buried in the pop culture relic. There’s been plenty of tongue-in-cheek riffs on the song over the years—see its collision with “Steamed Hams”—but Future Teens are nothing if not earnest, corralling its manic chorus into a swaying and romantic ode to life’s possibilities.
Listen to it below.
Snag a limited edition 7-inch pressing of the EP over at the band’s website, stay tuned to their Twitter for info on an upcoming benefit livestream, and please don’t go see Smash Mouth during a pandemic.