genres: post-hardcore + pop + electronic
Probably the least acclaimed album among my all-time favorites, I dearly love this album. For being lambasted as “generic” by many critics when it was released, there really hasn’t been anything released in the six years since that sounds like it. There’s a brilliant mix of pop and metal elements that are neither predictable or easily divisible. Most bands in this genre are either “metalcore + poppy chorus” or “pop + guitars and breakdowns”. This direction is launched full force on the first track “Player Haters’ Ball”, which features alt pop star blackbear despite being one of the most straightforward rock songs on the album. Elsewhere this is directly subverted, as on “No Chaser”, which flips it around by pairing a slow and sparse electronic structure with explosions of heavier guitar work under poppy vocal lines at unexpected moments. Later on, “True Blood” starts out with pure hardcore aggression before dropping everything out except for a simple synth pulse under an uncharacteristically gritty vocal section.
Another very interesting element of this album that sets it apart is that lyrically it functions almost as a concept album with every song sung in first person, moving from straight-up party escapism on tracks like “No Chaser” and “Bad Girls” to pivot track “Afraid”, confronting fear of failure by surrendering control and refusing to keep hiding from whatever may come. The next three tracks show the outworking of this growth, from mutual growth and support with those closest (“People Like Us”), to realizing that difficult and uncomfortable changes still need to be navigated (“Like A Drug”), to finally confronting the toxic elements at least partially responsible for the earlier state of things (“True Blood”). The final track, “Come Over And Watch Netflix”, serves as a fitting coda to the album, both lyrically and sonically. A purely electropop anthem, it fulfills the vaguely ‘prodigal son’ narrative that’s been running throughout the album by returning home, admitting the mistakes of the past, and asking someone to forgive and take them back. It’s an excellent closer to a very fun album, that is very personal, but especially on the back half leaves enough increasing ambiguity to invite the listener along to consider their own place in the world and whether there’s anyone that they should reconcile with.
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