MY VITRIOL -- FINELINES -- 8/10
There are plenty of reasons not to give My Vitriol a fair shake - their somewhat whiny vocals (I actually like lead singer Som Wardner's voice, but I know I'm very forgiving of that sort of thing), their fashion sense that more resembles Panic! at the Disco or My Chemical Romance than more similar acts like (though it's hard to make real comparisons) Silversun Pickups or JJ72, and their catastrophically bungled Kickstarter campaign for a second album that could and should have been released over a decade ago. At the same time, however, Finelines, the band's first and only album, is a gripping and engaging record whose first half seems to move at the speed of light, and whose second half uses a shoegazy languor to solid affect. More importantly, this is an album that has "Always: Your Way" on it, a brilliant song whose shear emotional force and piercing melody make it stand head and shoulders above the rest of what would still be a very solid album. Fusing the sweeping guitar aesthetic of Smashing Pumpkins with the desperation and fast pace of bands like Mineral and the Manic Street Preachers (though I very much doubt Mineral is among their influences, they have the same desperate angst and fast, layered guitar melodies), Finelines is an album whose instrumental melodies feel rich yet effortlessly natural and whose lyrics and vocals are dripping with angst, both in the calm verses and surging, passionate choruses. While the remainder of the songs on the album are hard-pressed to live up to the example of "Always: Your Way," the first song on the album the include any words, flowed into organically from the instrumental "Alpha Waves," they nonetheless maintain an emotional impact that at times crosses the line into the excessive, but overall grabs your attention and is driven by a persistently engaging rhythm. While some lines like "conscience is the greatest curse / the fridge is filled with just desserts" are clumsily heavy-handed, many of the songs on the album come off as earnest yet confident. Likewise, the instrumental tracks, while perhaps overproduced compared to your standard instrumental tracks, nonetheless serve as a useful interlude between them. Thus, the album maintains a fast pace from "Always: Your Way" and "The Gentle Art of Choking" and gradually slows down through to the majestically yearning "The Ode To The Red Queen", with it's chorus "I guess you'll learn soon, she said / ... And I'm trying hard to understand your ways". The second half is initiated with drifting instrumental tracks and the slow crescendo of "Windows and Walls" until the album is jolted back into alertness with the frenetic pace of "Losing Touch", followed by the slower but still effortlessly catchy and compelling "Pieces". From here on out, Finelines slowly drifts out to a close, making the ending a bit anti-climactic, but when the remainder of the album is ceaselessly active as the rest of album, with numerous tracks blending into each other as if part of a single piece of music, it's perhaps a necessary sacrifice. All in all, Finelines, while very much a relic of early 2000's angst and stubbornly unsubtle in its delivery, is certainly worth a complete listen. This isn't a hard album to get the appeal of, but perhaps it is a difficult album to take as seriously as it deserves to be taken. Highlights include "Always: Your Way", "Ode To The Red Queen", "Pieces".
THE CRIBS -- FOR ALL MY SISTERS -- 8/10
I remember back around 2010, after I really got into Idlewild, I was looking around for bands that sounded like them, that had the same punk sensibilities but played with the same layered fluidity, had the same sophistication, and wrote with the same frankness. I never really found anyone who truly satisfied that craving (though I did find everything from Superchunk to Aereogramme), with maybe JJ72 being closest. It wasn't until years later that I picked up The Cribs' Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever, and album with an angsty bite to it, but with a vaguely melancholy resonance to it, and of course, just as Idlewild broke their own mold with "Idea Track", The Cribs did the same with "Be Safe", a gripping, poetic masterpiece, "a catalogue of images, flashing glimpses, then gone again." I'll return to Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever later, but this was my background going into For All My Sisters, an album that I listened the hell out of the summer of 2015. The Cribs have always been a loud band, but even among the louder end of the Cribs spectrum (In the Belly of the Brazen Bull, for example), For All My Sisters stands out as a very loud, in your face album. Opener "Finally Free" and follow-up "Different Angle" make this immediately and abundantly clear with their angular, treble-dominated guitar riffs, pounding drums, and confidently steady choruses. Typically, The Cribs have been able to balance this loudness with moments of quiet(ish) introspection, such as "Women's Needs" and "Shoot the Poets" on MNWNW or "Anna" and the multi-part closer of In the Belly of the Brazen Bull. It's a formula that's worked to heighten the impact of The Cribs louder, more in-your-face moments, but unfortunately it's not executed quite as cleanly on For All My Sisters, where "Simple Story" feels a bit lethargic after the sincere swagger of "An Ivory Hand" and the slower songs of the second half of the album lacking that typical Cribs punch. Nonetheless, this criticism is minor in comparison to the sheer catchiness of most of the songs on this album. "Different Angle", "An Ivory Hand", and "Summer of Chances" jump out with earworm choruses that demand attention, while "Mr. Wrong" and "Diamond Girl" snarl with vitality while simultaneously admitting there's a sensitive side to The Cribs as well. While the second half of For All My Sisters lags in comparison to the first, it still makes for a fun and attention grabbing album that sits comfortably among The Cribs' back catalogue. Highlights include "Different Angle", "An Ivory Hand", "Diamond Girl".
JAWBOX -- FOR YOUR OWN SPECIAL SWEETHEART -- 9/10
Sometimes you just known when an album is a juggernaut that demands to be heard, and while opener "FF=66" is just a noisy palate-cleanser, For Your Own Special Sweetheart is a heaping plate of non-stop hardcore brilliance, from the hypnotically tense "Savory" through to the lethargic yet impactful "Whitney Walks". For Your Own Special Sweetheart is a remarkably tuneful album for a DC-hardcore band, and unlike some other bands who try to make the same compromise between noisy intensity and catchy choruses, like Archers of Loaf or Husker Du for example, by having songs that lean more one way or the other, Jawbox succeeds here in creating songs that are brutally and gleefully noisy yet structurally sturdy, with punchy directness and simplicity layered over moments highlighting idiosyncratic originality, like Fugazi and Polvo mashed together. "Savory" remains the show-stopper on this album, guitar and singer J. Robbins trading spaces in the limelight, each one brutally laconic, with lines like "Hey angel, fly over and bless me" oozing with nonchalance. "Breathe" follows with it's suddenly fast pace like an out of control train, delivered like Texas is the Reason without the youthful ingenuousness. While there are a few songs on the noisier end of the spectrum that end up feeling a bit like filler, when Jawbox keep everything thudding along at an even pace, they hit with great effect. Songs like "Motorist", "Green Glass", and "Reel" combine a stoic calm and steadiness with sweeping climaxes of loudness, while "Cooling Card", "Jackpot Plus", and "Chicago Piano" push the tempo with equal poise. Overall, this is album that pulses with an energy only heightened by it's consistently clean execution, and while many of the songs are variations on a theme, the whole ensemble has such a constant force to it that For Your Own Special Sweetheart remains a thrill to listen to. Highlights include "Savory", "Jackpot Plus", "Reel".
