Say Anything - In Defense of the Genre
This album has been out for a while now, but it's so good, I just wouldn't feel right to not say anything about it--see what I did there? Hur hur.
I told you guys about the band Say Anything a while back through one of my
Favorite Songs of the Moment posts, and I'm sure some of you have heard their music before.
They don't really get much if any radio play, but they've been around for a few years and their first album was phenomenal. The sound is basically punk/rock but they do such a great job of combining different genres, everything from techno to ska to folk, and it's all done quite well.
With the band's latest work,
In Defense of the Genre, they've added to an already stellar sound by improving their own skill, but more importantly, each track on the two-disc album has backup vocals from one of many bands in the underground punk/rock genre. It creates a great contrast, having 2-3 singers per track, aiding Max's lead vocals-- I think the idea was to grab people from different bands in the genre, as the album title suggests.
The album is a double-disc set, with 27 tracks in all-- all of which are awesomely done and totally worth the listen. Say Anything just does such a great job of adding in humor and serious emotion to each track, all while having a totally unique sound. They have so much emotion in their music, it's hard to describe without hearing it, but they use a lot of strings / synths from time to time to achieve this, and when these parts of the songs come, they really move me every time I hear them. I've had both disc one and disc two of this album on repeat in the car all day, every day, for about two weeks. Considering that I drive about 3 hours a day, that's saying a lot. Let's just say it has replay value, shall we?
Lyrics: 10
Vocals: 9
Instrumentals: 9
Replay Value: 9
Overall: 9
The hard part here is listing key songs, every song on the album is so great, so many amazing metaphors and whatnot on so many different tracks. They're all so amazing. If I had to pick I suppose I'd go with
[Skinny, Mean Man - No Soul - The Church Channel - We Killed It - Have At Thee! - I Used to Have a Heart - Plea] for the key tracks. They all have amazing lyrics and music and are all vastly different from the next. I don't wanna spam the crap out of this review with lyrics so I'll just list a few songs.
The first song on the album is
Skinny, Mean Man, which uses the imagery of a girl being murdered / buried to explain her relationship with the man she is currently dating (the skinny, mean man
). Max is looking in from the outside and he sees how the girl's personality has been totally killed by this asshole that she is dating. So anyway, she's been dead and buried, and he's digging her up so to speak, and if she would just come to life, they could be together, though her personality has been long dead and buried by the asshole she is with. The first paragraph of the lyrics is said by a devil-like voice over some eerie music, which then erupts into the actual song. Quite moving.
Skinny, Mean Man (Listen to the song, don't mind the crappy fan-made anime video, haha)
I know you love how I make it all go away
All the joy, all the pain, all the thoughts in your brain
For the price of your soul I will hold your heart in my talons
For three summers straight you've been my sweet arm candy
And no one will ever, ever take you away from me
---
I saw, I smelled what he did to you, girl
and, to be frank, the thought makes my innards curl.
How he preyed on your ripe insecurities
the thorn in your side is alive, and it’s killing me.
Obscure records entombed in his room with mechanical lust
diapered, desolate middle-aged doom.
On your knees in his downtrodden shit-eating grin of a room.
If only you’d meet me here soon.
If only you’d start breathing, I’d court you exclusively
With my shovel I’m pounding earth ‘til suddenly I see
You awake from the dirt and the grime
Stretch your fractured pretzel spine
Out to take your revenge for the crime
Filled with fire and finally mine
Paraded you around like a second place prize
Hair done up, black holes painted on your eyes
Held a book burning in your back yard
while your parents observed from their window, slightly scarred
And I’ve watched with my shovel in hand
I have in faith in you, child. From his nightmares I’ve plucked a plan.
Where that prick to the world is revealed as a wicked man
This is a prayer from your biggest fan.
If only you could see me, we’d dance like a heart attack
With a wail you let them know you’re furious, you’re back
You awake from the dirt and the grime
Stretch your fractured pretzel spine
Out to take your revenge for the crime
Filled with fire and finally mine
You awake from the grave that he dug
Pulsing, boiling, angry blood
Well aware that I’m falling in love
Filled with fire, I’m drinking gasoline to make it go faster
Gasoline will make it go much faster
Gasoline will make it go faster
Gasoline will make it go much faster
Faster
Have at Thee!Listen here:
She drives me insane, drives me insane
Have at thee, false christ I've been dreaming on
She drives me insane, drives me insane
Have at thee, false christ
God damn you
She'll never let me down again
So I'll go out and get crunked with my friends
My own brand of medicine
And defecate on the lawns of the Barbies and Kens
She made me want to take a blade to my skin
And tear out the machine she installed from within
I'll blow her love away
She drives me insane, drives me insane
Have at thee, false christ I've been dreaming on
Drives me insane, drives me insane
Have at thee, false christ
God damn you
Out of my mind, out of my brain
Have at thee empty god I've been leaning on
Drives me insane, drives me insane
Have at me, I'm free
So many females to undress
We roll in as a pack, we will roam and regress
So many standards to suppress,
Do any drug that they recommend or suggest
She was my own false deity,
Seduced by a priest, she was out to destroy me
I'll drink her love away
She drives me insane, drives me insane
Have at thee, false christ I've been dreaming on
Drives me insane, drives me insane
Have at thee, false christ
God damn you
Out of my mind, out of my brain
Have at thee empty god I've been leaning on
Drives me insane, drives me insane
Have at me, I'm free
Plea - This song features Halie Williams from Paramore, which creates an awesome constrast of vocals and one of the most emotional finales on the album. The beginning is a bit slow, but it's well worth it, an amazing song.
Listen here:
Please run
Please run
Please run away with me
Please come
Please come
Please come and stay with me
I don't know what to do if
once more I lose you.
It would tear me in two
if you should go right now.
If you should go right now..
If you should go right now.
I wanna see you but I don't know how.
Please run
Please run
Please run away with me
Please come
Please come
Please come and stay with me
I don't know what to do if
once more I lose you.
It would tear me in two
if you should go right now.
[I slit this cut and the black expanded the sky]
if you should go right now.
[The light bleeds out before my jaded eyes.]
if you should go right now.
[I slit this cut and the black expanded the sky]
to live without you love, i don't know how.
On and on and I go in this world..
[hey, hey. hey hey]
I'm lusting after every empty girl.
[oh, oh. oh oh]
I smoke back from the rifles slowly swirls
[hey, hey. hey hey]
But I can't explain the way I feel
and all I know tonight is that it's real
I'm praying, darling.
Maybe someday we, together can be.
the king and queen [make me believe you mean this]
Maybe someday we, together can be. [believe this when i say it]
the king and queen [make me believe you mean this]
Maybe someday we, together can be. [believe this when i say it]
the king and queen [make me believe you mean this]
Maybe someday we, together can be. [believe this when i say it.]
the king and queen of all I see.
Anyway, check this album out, it's well worth it, and full of awesome tracks that I'm sure everyone can relate to in some way. Of course, I relate to the bitter ones the most
Let me know what you think, if you really like it, their first album is just as amazing. Personally, I can't get enough.
