Say Anything - Hebrews

Say Anything - Hebrews

 

I'll start this review by getting the obvious things out of the way. First I'm sure by know unless you really don't follow the band, that there are no guitars on the album. Second this is not ...Is A Real Boy. If you were expecting a return to that sound or part of the crowd that refuses to accept anything else, then may as well stop reading now, your mind is already made up. In fact this albums lyrics are definitely inspired by your close mindedness. This album is a departure in sound and yet feels oddly familiar, especially if you've followed the band or have at least embraced the early years.

Also let me get the negatives out the way. This album features a ton of guest vocals from various sources and genres ranging from Every Time I Die's Keith Buckley to Tom Delonge from Blink-182. It's bursting with talent, but it almost goes to waste. The parts are poorly implemented and almost feel like an after thought. Almost every one comes at the end of the song their featured on. Which gets me to my next issue. It's too formulaic. I really hate to bring up the comparison but what made ...Is A Real Boy such a master piece was the chaotic nature in the song structure. Most of the song weren't just straight forward intro-verse-chorus-verse-outro. Mind you it was a drug fueled chaos and I'm glad he's remained clean, the songs in general come off too clean or poppy which was an issue the last album had. However that's really only in the structure and it's not every song. That wraps it up for my negatives.

Buy this album, listen to this album, love this album. This is Say Anything (To be fair at this point mostly Max Bemis, though to be even fairer it started that way and really has always been) at their best. Some of the best lyrics Max Bemis has ever committed to paper. Full of angst and self loathing, he is a wordsmith unlike anyone else in the genre. This album in particular is like a journey into Max's life. It takes you through his daughter's pregnancy and you can feel what he went through writing this album. In interviews this is something he did state, but I wrote it off because most of the time when musicians try and do that they either end up too subtle or it because so obvious like a brick to the face. This album manages to straddle that line eloquently. You can just feel what he was feeling. You feel anger, you feel fear, you feel hope, you feel joy. As a whole this album is a journey into this period of his life and it comes off stronger because of that.

The instrumentals are catchy and fairly impressive. You won't be thinking about the lack of a guitar or lamenting it's absence. It's going to be interesting live to see how it's pulled off. A lot people forget early Say Anything was pretty guitar light and heavy on the synths and drums. The melodies created will stay in your head, they're just this side of poppy to make them work with the angsty lyrics. Compared to Anarchy My Dear the lyrics feel less forced. It doesn't feel like he's trying to regain the crowd that left after IARB, they come off as earnestly scathing.

This album isn't ...Is A Real Boy. I hate that I have to say that, but it needs to be said. This isn't what you're used to, it's a progression of the Say Anything sound for the better. It feels fresh and yet it feels safe. There is no other band like them out there and they've gone and proven that again. Max Bemis is a master lyricist and only gotten better with time. If you can set aside your expectations of what a Say Anything album sounds like it's highly enjoyable. I recommend it to fans of the band highly, any genre fans sound take a listen if not for the guest vocals.