Album Review: Alkaline Trio - Agony and Irony

I’m going to start off this by saying my review on any Alkaline Trio CD is subject to huge amounts of bias. It’s a natural result of being a huge fan of their work since their 1997 indie rock masterpiece Goddammit and always supporting their attempts to crack the mainstream music scene. So although I believe the following grade to be fair and impartial, it may receive a completely different rating from someone who has not grown up with Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano.

Alkaline Trio has been making music since 1995, which is puzzling when you consider they just signed to their first major record deal. Agony and Irony is their first release from Epic Records, and it is a solid introduction of the three piece group from Aurora, Illinois, who bring along most of the things that earned them a cult following over the past decade: melodic if not simple music, alternating lead singers for different songs, and macabre yet piercing lyrics focused on the darker side of things. The lyrics seem to have been dumbed down for their major record label, but I'll get to that later.

The entire album plays through largely without incident; there are no songs that you want to skip, but also no songs that force you to hit repeat. The first single which has gotten steady airplay on MTV2, "Help Me," is the best choice for a single, as it showcases the Trio's happy music/depressing lyrics balancing act and also features the more accessible Matt Skiba as the lead singer (the other lead singer, bass player Dan Andriano, is probably the better songwriter but sings with a slight lisp, which is like a Miss America contestant having a third eye). Skiba's songs are more likely to be appreciated by the mass public, as songs like "Live Young, Die Fast" and "I Found Away" have concepts and ideas but are also very easy to listen to. Out of Andriano's four songs, only one ("Love Love, Kiss Kiss") is marketable: the other ones have great lyricism in them, but you have to wade through his vocals to find them.

Older fans of the band will be, I think, largely disappointed, as it seems that the Trio has tailored themselves for a mainstream breakthrough, which is to say they curbed their lyrics and wrote songs that, for the most part, are generic emotion songs: gone are the ballads penned about Charles Manson's accomplices and the West Memphis Three. In their place are songs that can be described by the title of the song: "Live Young, Die Fast" is preaching to...well...live young. And die fast. This doesn't ruin the album by any means, but as I said before, older fans who are used to deep despondency from this album may need to look elsewhere.

Overall, while it is a solid album to listen to, there isn't anything that really makes Agony and Irony stand out. And on your major label debut, your entire aim is to give something that makes people take notice. There is no one song on the CD that I can point to as a bad song; however, there is also no song I can say is a fantastic song. After over ten years of great, heartstring-tugging songs, Alkaline Trio has put out an album that isn't close enough to the heartstrings to pull them, so instead tries to use the Jedi Mind Trick to move them. And fails. I enjoy the album, but would rather listen to Goddammit or any other of their great CDs.

Scoring:

Replayability: (15/20) Even though I said that the CD isn't spectacular, I sometimes find myself putting it in the player to hear certain songs (mostly "Calling All Skeletons," which rivals most of their other track 1s, and "Love Love, Kiss Kiss"). There is still a lot for me to find on this album, I'm hoping; most Trio CDs are packed with subtleties that take time to discover, and so far this one has been no different.

Music: (16/20) There is one thing about Alkaline Trio that is not up for debate: ever since their distorted, grainy intro to the music scene, each album has marked a steady incline in musical abilities. In fact, on their last album before this one, they actually had a guitar solo. In this album there are great intros, and Skiba, Andriano and Derek Grant play their instruments well. The simple yet melodic beats that always brought a smile to my face as a teenager have thankfully not left.

Lyrics: (15/20) As stated before, I believe the folks at Epic asked kindly for Skiba and Andriano to curb their lyrics, just a little, to make them more approachable. The result isn't poor lyrics, as this score suggests, but also is nothing like the the first few lines of "Cringe" on Godddammit that hooked me to the band. The lyrics are much simpler than on past albums, but not to the point of unoriginality/unintelligent.

Completeness: (18/20) The strongest aspect of this album is that, as I said before, there are no songs that need to be skipped. The album is very solid, and each song melds into the next quite effortlessly. The mixing of the different lead singers was also done much better than on past albums.

Emotional Pull: (13/20) Unfortunately, solid is usually followed by "unspectacular" and it is true here. There is nothing here that really brings the listener to a happier, more fulfilled place. Listening to the album is like eating a ham and cheese sandwich: it does its purpose, and it definitely was a good sandwich; it just doesn't leave you with an overly satisfied, happy feeling.

Total: 77

Grade: C+

A C+ is a grade that pretty much screams "better than average...but not by much." Alkaline Trio's first major label effort is a good one, and lays the foundations to do better, but it doesn't have the pull on it that previous Trio albums have had. In fact, it almost seems like this album could be any other artist: while most of Trio's defining characteristics are found, not enough are there to truly brand this as an Alkaline Trio CD. It could have been made by any other band. And that truly saddens me.

/bias

Extras

Check/Check Plus/Check Minus:

Calling All Skeletons √+
Help Me √+
In Vein √
Over and Out √
I Found Away √
Do You Wanna Know √
Live Young, Die Fast √
Love love, kiss kiss, blah blah blah √+
Lost and Rendered √
Ruin It √
Into the Night √

Previous Artist Ratings: After talking so much about Goddammit's wonderfulness, I figured I had to show what I meant.

Replayability: (19/20)
Music: (13/20)
Lyrics: (20/20)
Completeness: (19/20)
Emotional Pull: (19/20)

Total Score: 90

Grade: A-

After picking a few recent albums, I'm going to go back in time to 2004 for my next review, which should be done in the next few weeks. If you have an album you'd like me to review, please email me at rockreportcard@hotmail.com. I'm always looking for an excuse to listen to new music.

Artist: Citizen Cope
Album: The Clarence Greenwood Recordings