Alkaline Trio
(Epic)
When Alkaline Trio released the three-track Agony & Irony EP, you couldn’t help but think that the full-length was going to be a career record, even better than 2005’s Crimson. Alas, the band doesn’t quite keep it up over the course of 11 tracks, a few of which (“Love Love Kiss Kiss”) find them veering dangerously close to generic emo. Part of that’s a result of the fact that the members of Alkaline Trio are clearly happier now than ever before; whoever thought we’d hear Matt Skiba sing “I feel a miracle in every breath that I breathe/ Won’t let this miracle end in tragedy” as he does on the midtempo anthem “Live Young, Die Fast?”
It’s not that happiness doesn’t suit them or that they’ve lost touch with the angst that marked their previous outings — and individual songs are as strong as anything they’ve done. Album opener “Calling All Skeletons” is Alkaline Trio at its best, a grim tale of heartbreak set to handclaps and singalong chorus, and “In Vein” mines a wrecked relationship with wit (“you’re a kinda blackened superhero with nobody’s best interests in mind”) and razor-sharp guitar riffs. Still, the album as a whole doesn’t carry the same sonic or lyrical punch as Crimson showed they’re capable of.
Standout Tracks: “In Vein,” “Into the Night” ERIC SCHUMACHER-RASMUSSEN
