Alkaline Trio - This Addiction
Rating
RIYL
Gyroscopeforamusementonly
Reel Big Fish
Label
EpitaphTracklist
1. This Addiction2. Dine, Dine My Darling
3. Lead Poisoning
4. Dead on the Floor
5. The American Scream
6. Off The Map
7. Draculina
8. Eating Me Alive
9. Piss and Vinegar
10. Dorothy
11. Fine
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They misspelled the last track on the album, it should have been "Fin...ally, It’s Over." I have often heard of bands losing their creative edge or not being able to follow up the brilliance of their debut or sophomore albums, but Alkaline Trio’s latest release This Addiction seems to be a complete regression from everything they have achieved since From Here to Infirmary. For a long time Alkaline Trio had been one of the bands keeping me interested in the (fading) punk rock genre; Good Mourning and The Crimson are still on high rotation in my collection, so this review was not written with ease.
Frontman Matt Skiba has always been one of those pioneer songwriters with lyrics and a voice so heavy with the perfect angst the genre needs, that from album to album he has been able to maintain something so definitely Alkaline Trio, yet each time deeply original. "Dead End Road" from Good Mourning talks to a friend who can’t be helped… "I thought that you were joking / when you said you couldn’t breathe… turned out that you were choking / on a town you couldn’t leave," and The Crimson’s "Sadie" even involves a recorded message of a confession from the Charles Manson trial, which will burn into your memory.
The title track of this album fails to preserve any of the ambiguity that previous addiction songs held, with lines like, "This addiction / can’t seem to live without you… sick with this addiction / in me," holding nothing for the listener. Cliches litter the lyrics throughout the album, with track titles like "The American Scream" and "Draculina" I find it hard to believe the same man wrote these songs. "Wake me when you learn to be cool / I’m the captain of this ship / and all my shipmates are fools," yeah, he really sung that.
This Addiction shows very few traces of the band's former brilliance, not only in the lyrics, but the arrangements lack any of their previous creativity. Where are the slow piano intro hooks for "Time to Waste," the overamped delay on "Burn" or even the simple acoustic depth of "Blue in the Face"? It’s a strange thing, because even the production value seems to have been reduced for this effort. If it was a conscious decision to return to the basics of making music, unfortunately it hasn’t worked out very well for them. "Lead Poisoning" even has a very misplaced and odd trumpet solo that I won't get into.
I was very hung up while reviewing This Addiction, but I have spun it many times in the hope I’ve missed something, and there are times something jumps out that I’ve missed, but it doesn’t last. Alkaline Trio are a better band than they let on in this release. I hope they’re able to throw off the shackles of the Epitaph contract and potentially attempt to regain some of their former glory.
--Sandy Powell
Comments
Milwaukee, WI
They are getting worse with age. They were so good over the course of their first few discs that it's somewhat sad to see what's happened. Since Good Mourning on they have been in decline. I've like each disc to a certain extent, but each releaseI likeless than the last. This one marks the first Alkaline Trio that I got absolutely nothing out of, can't listen to it at all.
Green Brook, NJ
i disagree. this album is much better than 'agony and irony'. there's only 1 or 2 songs on here that i really skip when i listen to. the rest are pretty good.
Wollongong, New South Wales
totally agree with the reiew. Alkaline trio are top 5 favorite bands, but each release since good mourning only ever looks good in retrospect. Crimson was ggood compared to Agony, and Agony is good compared to this.