Artist: Alkaline Trio
Album: This Addiction
Label: Heart & Skull/Epitah
Grade: B+
Everyone's favorite satanic punk rockers have returned from the dark depths of their minds with their seventh album, which is filled with sex, drugs, and rock n roll.
Following their disappointing 2008 release, Agony and Irony, Alkaline Trio has returned to their roots with This Addiction.
The album starts with the title track and it is a great blueprint on just what the album is going to be about.
With 'This Addiction,' A3 brings back the pop-punk sound that made them so immensely popular.
A3, who have always been fond of bitter ballads, draw the connection between love and drugs, particularly heroin, everyone's favorite opioid.
Just like heroin, as soon as 'This Addiction' enters your blood, you're hooked. The fast paced instrumentals only compliment the hauntingly beautiful lyrics.
'This addiction/Can't seem to live without you/This addiction/Now going clean/This addiction/I go through withdrawal without you/Sick with this addiction in me,' Matt Skiba sings.
As the listener plunges deeper into This Addiction, A3 continues to return to their punk foundation while introducing new aspects into their music at the same time.
The clearest example of this would be 'Lead Poisoning.' A3 does not do anything special with the three static instruments of the band, but rather throw in a few new ones, horns. Although the brass may not be in the song for long, they accompany the stringed instruments remarkably.
When Alkaline Trio slows down the pace for songs 'Dead on the Floor' and 'Fine,' the listener can feel the pain and tears they went through prior to writing the album.
'When you asked me if I'd stay forever/Guess you meant just for the week/We felt so good together/It was way too good to be,' Skiba sings painfully.
This Addiction may supply a great rush at first, but by the end of the album, the listener itches for something more. As good as the album is, This Addiction is strung out towards the end.
Besides the slight redundancy, the band has returned from the abyss with one of its best albums in its long and sinful career.
E-mail: arts@ubspectrum.com
No longer just a stupid kid
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