Welcome to the first of what’s currently a planned monthly
series of music posts! These can be reviews, musings, concert reviews, or other
random music-related minutiae to keep my writing muscles working in between
videos. This January post falls into the first field, picking out a recent
album that held my attention the most this month and discussing why it’s worth
hearing.
And, I’ve gotta admit, the album that stood out the most in
January is one that certainly earns all the acclaim I’m about to heap onto it.
While I could go into detail about Laura Jane Grace’s personal journey and how
it impacts the music itself like every other reviewer who’s tackled this album,
I’ll leave that outside reading to you and focus on how the album tackles its
themes on its own terms.
Now, I’ve never heard anything by Against Me! before, but I
do like a good bit of punk and the two songs I heard from this album before I
heard the full thing more than convinced me to give it a chance.
And I’m absolutely glad I did. The album kicks off with a steady burst of
energy, anger, and angst with the title track with Grace spitting out lyrics
about ostracization and isolation despite trying to fit in. This theme
permeates the album, the difficulty of living the way you identify and finding
social acceptance at the forefront of songs like “Black Me Out,” “Drinking with
the Jocks,” and “FUCKMYLIFE666.”
Musically, the songs rock as hard as you’d like a good punk
record to, but have a melodic side too. “Drinking with the Jocks” is by far the
most aggressive song here, Laura’s voice acidic and with some killer
guitar riffs keeping the song driving all the way through. “FUCKMYLIFE66” has
some of the most poignant lyrics on the album with imagery vividly painting the
portrait the theme works hard to convey and also benefits from an incredibly evocative guitar hook. The title track,
by far my favorite song of the bunch, carves out an awesomely impactful drum track
and some of the greatest lyrics throughout, and is easily the catchiest thing
here. Though the album leans towards the loud and heavy, even the acoustic ballad “Two Coffins” resonates emotionally in the context
of the album as a whole.
However, there are a few stumbles in an otherwise smooth
album. Even though I've listened to the album approximately five times already, I still have trouble recalling how the lackluster "Paralytic States" sounds. “Dead Friend” seems a little underdeveloped lyrically and could have
probably used some tweaking and a more fleshed out chorus. The song is part of
a different avenue the album takes in its second half, reflecting on death and
its alienating loneliness that intertwines with the transgender themes. It
works well given what the rest of the album deals with, which is more than I
can say about “Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ” (there’s a song title
if I’ve ever heard one). Though the song’s instrumentation is intriguing enough
so that it doesn’t become too much of a speed bump in the album’s flow, I can’t
for the life of me decipher what place the song has in the album’s structure
other than further adding to the fiery vitriol put forth elsewhere.
Ultimately, the album succeeds merely because it’s an interesting album. I can’t necessarily
vouch for how well you’ll take to the album’s sound or quality, but I feel like
it’s one worth checking out simply due to how unique it is. It’s a solid
examination of a subject rarely discussed in music drawn from some deeply
personal places in a labor of love. When Laura screams out the powerfully
profane chorus of album closer “Black Me Out,” she transcends the lyrics themselves and
conveys the point of the song through her vocal delivery alone. Here is an
artist, putting out content that of great significance to her, with a passion
unmatched by any of her contemporary peers.
