Against Me!
White Crosses
Sire Records
8/10
I wanted to be all “Selloutzzzz!” and “p0sers!,” but apparently I left my teenage indignation behind me nearly a decade ago. Instead, I suppose I will give a reasoned, if not intoxicated, review of the new Against Me! Album, White Crosses. I gotta start with the production value. People worried about the political ideology of Gabel & Co. signing with a major label, as if major labels are living breathing demons intent on eating musicians’ souls like they were Flinstones vitamins. (Mmmm, chewable!) However, the best thing that came about at the same time was an increase in production value. I used to have to look up the damned lyrics to older AM! Jams simply because it sounded like they recorded it through a telephone at times. Now, holy shit, I can understand what the hell is being said.
Now, the album as a whole seems like a collection of songs rather than a cohesive story. What I mean there is that there are songs that seem to highlight various influences to the point where they seem out of balance. That said, I can’t stop listening to it.
There are tracks that run the self-esteem spectrum from the overwhelming lack of accomplishment found in “Ache With Me” to the exceptionally motivating “Bamboo Bones.” “Rapid Decompression” and “I was a Teenage Anarchist” both offer me tracks where I have put myself into the song. Things change, people change, bands change, and while the Against Me! of White Crosses is not the same Against Me! as Reinventing Axl Rose, they’re both pretty damned good.
– Jonathan “The Emperor” Yost