Alkaline Trio
Agony & Irony
Epic Records
By Kevin Hakannson
Once upon a time, Alkaline Trio was the toast of the emo/punk scene. The band's first two records, Goddamnit and Maybe I'll Catch Fire, both released on independent Asian Man Records, were both underground hits and gave the band a solid fan base with which to work. From Here to Infirmary and Good Mourning, released on Vagrant Records in 2001 and 2003, respectively, took the band from indie label Cinderella to the mainstream and established the Trio as a straight up rock band
After Good Mourning, the band‘s momentum seemed to slow a bit: Crimson (2005) was met with mixed reviews, bassist/vocalist Dan Andriano founded The Falcon with Lawrence Arms frontman Brendan Kelly, and vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba started a project called Heavens, a group whose 2006 debut album dropped on Epitaph. While such developments may have seemed damning for the future of Alkaline Trio, the band is still kicking. They're on tour this fall and in support of their newest offering, Agony & Irony, a two-faced album that alternates between rocking and crooning, beauty and death, light and dark.
The subject matter on Agony & Irony has a true duality to it. Tunes seem to alternate between hope and despair consistently, sometimes within the same song. To that end, the album opens with a couple of songs whose tunes are upbeat, while their lyrics are anything but. On the opening "Calling All Skeletons" Skiba laments a relationship gone wrong through a sickeningly catchy, rhythmic verse/chorus interplay, while "Help Me" goes in a slightly different direction. As the album's first single, it isn't nearly as bleak lyrically, and might actually be catchier than the opener; the "Help me" chorus alone proves this one worthy of its single status.
Andriano takes the vocal reigns on a few of the record's darkest songs. "In Vein”, first heard on some of Alkaline Trio's 2007 tours, is a spastic shuffle driven by Skiba's minor guitar. Later, "Ruin It" is fast-paced yet decidedly dark, Andriano wonders, "Did I stay inside to sterilize this knife?" Another of the darker songs is "I Found Away", the record's second single, whose lightning fast chorus may help the song find its way onto rock radio.
While the constant pace changes serve a purpose, Agony & Irony is at its finest when Skiba croons, showing what established Alkaline Trio’s popularity in the first place. He bemoans suicide on the solemn "Over and Out". "Live Young, Die Fast" promotes a similar sentiment, Skiba proclaiming, "I feel a miracle in every breath that I breathe/Won't let this miracle end in tragedy."
There's little doubt that old school Alk3 followers will long praise the band's early works as their best. However, the same could be said for most bands that made such an important impact in the early stages of their career. Without a doubt, Alkaline Trio has made such an impact, with each new album progressively harder to sell to grizzled fans. Regardless of the impact that Agony & Irony has compared to, say, Goddamnit, Skiba and company's new record is one that showcases a band that has years of musical relevance left in them.
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