Disclaimer: This picture was taken from the albums wikipedia site.
Okay, I recently acquired the brand-spankin' new album of one of my favorite bands, Alkaline Trio. I'm pretty sure not alot of people have heard of Alkaline Trio in my country (Philippines), except for maybe the die-hard "Trio" fans, and the people who got hooked on their 2nd single, "Mercy Me", from their 2007 release, "Crimson". That was a good album, it really was. Personally, I got hooked when i listened to the "From Here to Infirmary" album, I'm sure not alot of people would share my enthusiasm for that album, but who cares? I liked it. Anyway, let's move on to their new album, "Agony and Irony". Personally, I give it 4.5/5...Find out why!
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This is actually a pretty cool album, musically, lyrically, however, I kinda thought Matt, Dan, and Derek would tap the wittier side of their vocabulary.
The first track 'Calling All Skeletons' is actually pretty friggin' catchy. It kinda reminds me of their old tracks from their 'o3 album, Good Mourning. Calling All Skeletons makes mixes strong sounding guitars, dark lyrics, and a perfectly placed "sissy" clap sequence in the first few seconds which greatly contrasts the whole songs dark, near-gothic feel. The band did a good job of making this song the first track on the album, personally, i think it sets the listener properly for the kind of audio attack he/she is about to receive.
The second track, which is also the first single off this pretty solid album, is Help Me. This is perhaps my most favored song from the whole damn album. This song just succeeds in multiple ways: lyrically, its reminiscent of old school Alkaline Trio (circa '99-'03), musically, it displayed Alkaline Trio's maturity by using a really basic, really simple, but freakishly gripping intro (with the use of practically 2 guitar notes), and an overall piano theme that, although is a little pop-punk, works just fine with the dark, self-loathing lyrics ("Save me from myself, save me from this hell"). Brilliant 'effin song man!
Other songs that boast pretty decent lyrics, are the tracks I Found a Way, and Into The Night. Other than those four songs, the rest were pretty elementary in terms of their lyrical content. Honestly, the lyrics in this new album reminded me of the childish lyrics of the band, All-American Rejects, but a little more death-ly. The lyrics are pretty my much my only problems with the album. Now lets move on to the kick-ass stuff!
Musically, this album is friggin' genius. Almost all of the songs feature mind-blowing instrumental arrangements. One track to note is the song I Found A Way. This track mixes heavy sounding palm-mutes, new wave-ish drum fills, eerie sounding guitar licks, and basic but solid bass lines. Matched with the, rare but brilliant, witty lyrics, this is easily THE song on the album.
All in all, I highly recommend this album to ALL Alkaline Trio fans, musci fans, sing-along-y music fans, etc. This is a really good album, a f*cking amazing one at that, if you can get past the elementary-style lyrics of most songs. This is a genius album, and you're a retard if you don't agree!
Cheers!
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