 Agony
& Irony |
 Alkaline
Trio
Culled from The Alkaline Trio's many
EPs and seven-inches, this album feels much more like an LP
than most of these compilation albums usually do. It could be
the comprehensive theme of drinking and misogyny, but more
than likely it's the consistent, driving pop-punk, chugging
guitars and vocal stylings. No whining here. No high, child-voiced
lead singer with a snotty delivery. These guys sound like men,
and they suffer like men, and solve it with drink as we all
should. It's punk rock for adults--well really fucked up adults--that
brings the headbanger out in all of us and makes us glad that
our lives couldn't possibly be as miserable and messed up as
these guys'. Definitely one of my great, guilty pleasure albums.
|
From Here to Infirmary |
Goddamnit!
This is one of those serious guilty pleasure
albums. I know I'm not supposed to like it at my age, but the
weird punk-pop about drinking and f'd relationships seems somehow
grown up amongst the glorified punk boy bands out there. I could
listen to the song "San Francisco" fifty times in
a row and never get sick of it. Their first album, I actually
thought when I first heard of them that they were named after
the Hall of Fame baseball player and were called The Al
Kaline Trio. |
Good Mourning
I never really knew what these guys looked
like until I saw them on Conan. Holy Satanic priest! I mean,
I knew they had this whole death gimmick, but they came complete
with white makeup and shit. There are a lot of mentions
of blood and dying on the album and the colors black and red,
but it's still your essential whoa-is-me, pop-punk, emo stuff
complete with self-loathing, lovelorn whining and lots of drinking
(although not as much as on previous records). While still entertaining,
it doesn't have those couple stand out tracks that some of their
past albums have had, but they are still the tops in my mind
in a somewhat tired genre. They're like a much darker, more
mature version of Blink 182. There's
no talk of school or anything, so it doesn't make me feel like
I'm listening to kiddy music. If they were actually around when
I was in college, I would imagine this would have been terrific
just-got-dumped, drinking music. The fact that they have a song
called "Donner Party" should give you an idea of where
they're coming from. |
Maybe I'll Catch Fire
Not as good as their debut, Goddamnit!, this
album still has a couple classic punk-pop gems. "Fuck You
Aurora" is great fun (cuz it has the word "fuck"
in the title) and "Radio" features the great blow-off
line "I wish you would take my radio to bathe with you./
Plugged in and ready to fall." These guys just know how
to write a great, bitter break-up album while still making their
music upbeat. |
This Addiction |
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