This Could Be Love

The fourth full-length studio album from the Alkaline Trio (and first with new drummer Derek Grant, formerly of the Suicide Machines and Face to Face, if I'm not mistaken, anyway, he's the best drummer they've had thus far) is pretty great. The only reason I'm not saying "HOLY SWEET CHRIST YOU MUST GET IT NOW" is because I haven't paid complete attention to the lyrics yet. And because it's not out until next month.

Some interesting notes, though: There are two of the same song on the record-- "Emma" and "Fatally Yours" are the same song (same chords and lyrics) but done completely differently. "Emma" is a strange, sorta 80's minimalist-new-wavy-ballad verision of "Fatally Yours," which sounds more rockish like the rest of the album. Overall, the music is a lot more interesting and demanding of attention than their last record, "From Here to Infirmary;" there's more of everything on this new one. More guitars, more prominent bass (and damn, that Andriano guy is an admirably original and distinct-sounding bassist), some keyboards, organ, church-y bells, a few snippets of drum-machine here and there. More guitar diddy-parts, more technical drum fills... more stuff. Fuller. Deeper. Uh... more.

As usual, Matt sings the angry songs and Dan sings the weepy songs, and as usual, this works out perfectly. The thing that's kind of throwing me off is Matt's voice on this record. His voice is a little different from the consistency of his band's other releases. I read that he had throat/voice problems during the recording of "Good Mourning," so I'm sure that had something to do with it. Certain parts of "Good Mourning" almost, ALMOST sound like they could have been sung by a very talented Matt Skiba Impersonator. Strange. If you want to hear his voice really fucking up and cracking and giving out (but still sounding cool as hell), listen to the song "Old School Reasons." It's on some shitty comp that I didn't want to buy for two or three songs. I have enough shitty comps.

Anyway. My point: New Alkaline Trio record = very good, possibly extremely good, with a slight chance of being their best yet. We'll see. They're pulling off the neo-quasi-Misfits-horror-punk-pop alcohol-fueled happy-red-and-black-Satan-rock thing with a cool, badass style that's very reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs, even though that's a movie and this isn't.

If "Good Mourning" were a drink, it would be a jawbreaker (cinnamon schnapps and Tabasco sauce) chased with a warm can of cheap domestic beer, probably with a lonely, lipstick-stained cigarette butt floating in it. (nod to Todd). The record's great, so I'm making this drink comparison in a nice way, if you can belive that.

UPDATE: I'm a fool. The song "Emma" is not the same song as "Fatally Yours." The song that I had thought was called "Emma" was just a different, crazy version of "Fatally Yours." "Emma" is a completely different song. The internet made me stupid.