Review Summary: Jon Poulin's "Terrible But Great" is not all terrible, but it is certainly not all great.
Jon Poulin's "Terrible but Great" is like the title suggests ~ terrible, but great. It's not like Tom DeLonge's singing, that people say is "Terrible, but Great," or Nicolas Cage's performances in the movie "Vampire's Kiss," a job people view as "Terrible, but Great." No, this is more of a 50-50 album, 50 Terrible and 50 Great.
Making an instrumental EP stand out among the crowd is indeed challenging, and does Poulin do it here? Well, the album doesn't really stand out, but a few parts of it do. Is that enough to save the EP? As the band +44 once said, “No It Isn’t”.
With "Terrible but Great" you are looking for one thing - some sweet, sweet guitars, bass, and drums ~ things that don't start until the second half of "I Can't Believe You Came!" It starts with some chords but moves quickly into being just note after note after note. This doesn't last long, thankfully, since it picks up into nice leads, followed by some cool bass fills and drum parts. These leads are only a small taste of the next track, which is a direct hit for me. "My Fingers Hurt" takes off like a bullet, launching you right into an outstanding punk instrumental, with neat parts on the drums and leads that will make you just want to do something fast. The feeling is truly remarkable. I highly recommend listening to this song while running, as the tempo is perfect to match your feet. This then goes into a bridge, which takes this into a different direction, but still a good one, and is balanced with more sweet guitar riffs. This song is hastily followed by "Haste." This is another wonderfully fast and punchy track, one with guest guitar work that will leave you soaring. It’s truly amazing, with great pre-verses and all. The bridge is a little too slow for the rest of the song, but it’s over quickly enough and we get back into the rest.
“One of Everything” is the follow up track, which really takes the mood of the last three tracks and throws it out the window. It has a System of a Down feel at first, but it slowly has leads mix in with a little drums and bass. It sounds odd. The tempo picks up, but it still sounds off. There’s things that you like and that sound good mixed with stuff it shouldn’t be mixed with. The leads and the acoustics don't mix very well together, and with slower and bland drums, this track bogs this album down, disrupting the flow in a way that is upsetting. It has some small moments in it, specifically the second before it speeds up for the second time, something small happened with the leads and it sounded great. After it though, it feels like a bunch of things crushed together and it doesn’t sound all that okay.
We get back on our feet with “Valor.” This opens with an upbeat fills and some headbanging guitar work, but it sounds empty. When the intro is over and the leads come in, it gives you a headache, making notes sound really off, as well as bland, repetitive drum work. There are a few parts that sound good, though, the chorus mainly. This track is a sad way to end with just nonsense shredding that doesn’t work at all.
Overall, Jon Poulin delivers an EP with two real standout tracks where everything that could go right went right. It suffers from a poor intro and a poor outro, and when it slows down for a break you feel like you just smoked something you shouldn’t have. The inconsistency here is what really ruins the album for me and most listeners. When an EP can make such a promising first half that is all very very good, it cannot just fall flat on its face in the second half.
Overall, I would not recommend this EP. However, I would highly recommend checking out “My Fingers Hurt” and “Haste” on Poulin’s Youtube channel, littleredguitars2.
2.5/5
Favorite Track - My Fingers Hurt
Least Favorite Track - One of Everything
