Long live self destruction, and long live music about such activities. Alkaline Trio spring immediately to mind, well their early stuff anyway, a trawl through alcohol induced loneliness and revenge fantasies involving radios and bathtubs.
But now welcome to the new kid on the block "Agony and Irony" due out in the next few weeks it is the bands 6th album (excluding collections and split albums, which actually contain some of the most wonderful material) and fans of the band, like myself, will possibly be slightly disheartened to hear that we appear to have encountered Crimson Mk.2. This isn't to say that Crimson was a bad album as such but there was something missing. The alcohol fueled revelry that flowed throughout the first few releases obviously had to be reigned in before they disappeared into a hole of damaged livers and speech impediments the likes of which Shane McGowan has never seen. But the new darkness on the trio's records seems to be coming from a new place, a place where there is no darkness, consequently making the style seem contrived and pointless.
Without the bile and wonderfully vitriolic joy that appeared behind the original songs, the teaser EP for "Agony and Irony" featuring three new songs seems, while musically proficient and effortlessly catchy, slightly empty.
But as attested to on Crimson, god bless catastrophe, as this might well be one...albeit a listenable one.
To happier, unhappier times.
Wings and Stolen ways,
Chris.
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