Album Review: The Menzingers- On The Impossible Past
Despite
the band being signed to one of the best record labels around in Epitaph, The
Menzingers are not yet a household name in the punk music scene. Hopefully with
their gem of a new record that will all change. Despite being from a town most
known for being home to the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company (Scranton), the
band, along with Tigers Jaw and Title Fight, make up the most notable portion of
the Northeast Pennsylvania music scene. But The Menzingers may end up well
becoming the crème de la crème of that scene, simply based off their new album, On the Impossible Past.
To
put it simply, On the Impossible Past is
a masterpiece of songwriting. “I’d
rather observe than structure a narrative / The characters are thin; the plot
does not develop / It ends where it begins,” says the band at the beginning of “Burn
After Writing". But vocalists’ Tom May and Greg Barnett seem to transcend this
statement; they have an innate ability to tap into human emotion and tell
stories that don’t fall flat, narratives that feel real. The listeners begins
to feel as if he is the one whose soul was ripped out by a bad breakup; as if
he is the one singing: “I've been having a horrible time / Pulling myself
together / I've been closing my eyes to find / Why all good things should fall
apart.”
The
song from which those last words were taking, the first track “Good Things” is
the first indication of the greatness to come. The song is paced by the simple,
yet impactful, drumming of Joe Godino, and as the song comes to a climax right
before the bridge, Godino hits a massive fill to blast into the bridge with
full emotion. This small snippet of music displays as much as any other that this album is the work of a youthful, energetic band.
That’s
not to say the album is without its share of influences and stylistic similarities
to other, older bands. At some points, the band seems to be channeling a Gaslight
Anthem-esque sound, such as the floor toms and guitar riff at the beginning of
"Ava House" (which sound like they could be taken straight from an American Slang
B-side). Other times, Greg Barnett seems to be channeling Against Me’s Tom Gable.
This is especially evident in the track “Sun Hotel.” The track seems to take
the sound of Against Me’s older music, and add youth and vigor to it, providing
one of the best overall tracks on the album.
Perhaps
the most meaningful lyrical sample is the line, “We would take rides / In your
American muscle car / I felt American for once in my life.” While Barnett sings
this line with an angry and stinging tone on the first track, “Good Things,” when
the line is refrained in the title track, the result is a somber, almost
longing sound. This effect creates a sense of the importance of remembering
past memories in a less destructive way.
In
fact, this idea is an ever present theme on the album. On “Burn After Reading,”
the two singers sing the line “Certain memories are the problem,” and on the
next track, “Obituaries”, Barnett sings “I cursed my lonely memory with
picture-perfect imagery.” The past is impossible because, even though we have
memories of the events that occurred, we can never reach those times again. But
we can try to capture those fleeting moments and emotions in words and music,
forever immortalizing them.
Bottom
Line: Ultimately, it’s the honesty that makes On the Impossible Past such a tremendous record. When the band
sings, “I will fuck this up, I fucking know it,” we as listeners don’t
sympathize with his complete disregard of his abilities; we empathize. Everyone
has been there, with a feeling that they’re not good enough, and this empathy
is what powers On the Impossible Past one
of the early contenders for Album of the Year.
Recommended
if you rock: Nostalgia, Against Me, bad breakups, The Gaslight Anthem
- Craig Ismaili
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