Alkaline Trio - 'Good Mourning' (Vagrant)
3/5
By: Toby L
Kerosene and an intent to use matches - and it's just Alkaline Trio's first track off new LP, 'Good Mourning'. Yet, in spite of alleged possession of such heat-aids, there's something strikingly inoffensive to the 'Trio that allows you to think that their threats wouldn't carry off, given the time and place.
You see, the genre force-fed to us by the powers that be as 'pop-punk' resides too much on the former term within its title - that of 'pop' - to truly impact. Artists lurking within such a stable all too commonly swear (yes, gratuitously at times), blend choruses and power-chord driven verses as shamelessly predictably as one another, and don't so much as even care to consider not getting a series of skin-robbing tattoos. Yet, somehow, with such a focal preference hanging over the priority of 'fun' over 'brooding', there's little else to do other than attempt joining in.
And this is easier than once thought. For melody is king with Alkaline Trio, a US band whose star continues to rise, thanks to a smattering of radio-endearing belters and live-shows that prompt more moshing than mental-stimulation. With 'Good Mourning', they've nigh-on reached their zenith - twelve wickedly infectious blasts of arguably inconsequential instrument-scrabbling that's seen the likes of their not-so-aged forefathers - namely the Blink 182/Green Day's of this earth - transcend into the misty heights of Mount Rockstar, a mystical location conveniently situated just outside the West Coast (presumably, a place near beaches that feature girls with huge, sagging breasts and beer sold by the crate at any time). Even though this lot are from Chicago.
Save for the fact that the threesome almost resemble Bon Jovi on track-four 'Continental', this is a steady ride from beginning 'til end; the opening 'This Could Be Love' a charging, thriving mission of noise (something many will naively mistake for emo), whilst the bounce of 'We've Had Enough' is indicative that melancholy and playful angst can merge almost wonderfully (hey - you try including the likes of 'Please turn that f**king radio off,' or 'In the darkness where the angels cry/'Give us water, give us back our eyes' in the same bloody track).
They even endeavour ironic love ('Fatally Yours'), whilst 'Emma' is perhaps more straight-ahead in its aching. Though the over-hanging trouble of the work as a whole is production - basically, there's too much of it; beyond twenty minutes of the formula, and a shrill-like guitar-howl of feedback seems a world away, or the distorted thump of a throbbing bass-line, a dynamic drum-sequence... Repetition could be the main cause for 'Good Mourning's potential criticism of monotony.
But this ain't rocket science, nor does it strive to be. Whilst frontman Matt Skiba occasionally bears the pen to some enthralling sets of couplets, it does little to disguise the fact that Alkaline Trio are today just what they've always been - a really rather not-bad, catchy guitar-band. And maybe that should be enough.
Artists in this article: Alkaline Trio
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