Alkaline Trio: Agony & Irony
2008
Epic Records
Format I Own it on: Compact Disc
Track Listing: 1. Calling All Skeletons 2. Help Me 3. In Vein 4. Over and Out 5. I Found a Way 6. Do You Wanna Know? 7. Live Young, Die Fast 8. Love Love, Kiss Kiss 9. Lost and Rendered 10. Ruin It 11. Into the Night
Alkaline Trio at their most polished and accessible. Every single song on here is big, mid-tempo and glossy with gigantic singalong radio hooks. "Do You Wanna Know" takes it as far as sounding like A-Ha's "Take on Me." My god! Somehow this sound suits them just fine and they emerge with a few new AK3 classics in the process. Most notably, the choppy, hand-clappy "Calling All Skeletons" and their Ian Curtis tribute "Help Me." I also love those "Woah oh, Woah Oh's" in the chorus of "In Vein."
The only time they sound anything like the pop-punk of old is on album-closer "Into the Night" which helps prop up the second half of the album which sags under to the weight of overly goth-y numbers ("Lost and Rendered" and "Ruin It.")
I saw them shortly after this record came out in Tucson, Az at KFMA Fall Ball '08. My god, this show had so many shitty bands playing it was incredible. If I remember correctly, there were a bunch of unbearably boring "screamo acts" and bland, faceless mall-punk bullshit like Hawthorne Heights... I remember not being able to get back to my car fast enough. Just because you want to play punk and be on the radio it doesn't mean you have to totally suck! I actually think Alkaline Trio is a perfect example that this feat can be pulled off. So there's really no reason for Hawthorne Heights' suckiness (or existence)! Oh here, I found a poster for the show...
But let's not think about Bullet for My Valentine. Let's listen to Alkaline Trio's "Into the Night" instead...
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