[Album Review] Say Anything - Say Anything, 2009

I have been anticipating this album for a long time now. The first album I heard by Say Anything was "... Is a Real Boy", and I was hooked straightaway. That is an album that defines my youth, and probably the most important years of my life. Say Anything are one of those bands for me. They are pretty much top of the list of bands I have got to see live.

When that they were releasing a new album, I got very, very anticipant. I have been listening to old Say Anything songs over and over again, and when the first songs started to come out, I was straight on them.

The album starts with a short song called "Fed to Death". I absolutely love this song. It's a hell of a way to kick off the album. The lyrics are amazing. Bands often fall into the trap of opening an album with either a punchy but lyrically plain song, or a boring and forgettable song. Say Anything have managed to break this with Fed to Death. This song might have some of my favourite lyrics on the album. The first verse was on their website just around the time they announced their new album. It was a teaser, and ever since reading them, I have been wondering how the music would fit with such lyrics. It really does not disappoint. This is a truly wonderful start to the album.

There was a man from Allen Town,
Who fed his son to death.
He calmly watched him gorge himself,
Until his final breath.

And there he stood,
Surprised and shocked,
Above his tiny frame.
He said "I bear no blame for this,
I only share his name".

The second song on the album is also the first single, "Hate Everyone". According to the lead singer of Say Anything, Max Bemis, this song was written at a time in his life when he did indeed hate everyone and everything. Everybody has moments like this, most likely during their teenage years, and this song encapsulates that perfectly. The riff is strikingly similar to the Sex Pistols' "I Fought the Law". It's punchy, and catchy as hell. The lyrics are smart, and if you take into account the position that Bemis was in when he wrote it, it makes it all the more interesting. A very very solid first single.

Then I grew a few hairs where the sun don't shine
Pack me in a classroom to count the time
Studying the history of men’s minds
Chasing tail and committing hate crimes
Rich hippy girl with the gas guzzler
Forced myself to fall in love with her
She was so strung out she swear it never occurred
The honkey king went back on his word
The next one did the same
The blind leading the lame

"Do Better" is the upcoming second single off the album. Many people have considered it to one of Say Anything's biggest hits, "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too". I can definitely see this comparison. The lyrics are smart, witty and simple. The song doesn't have a whole lot of layers, but it really works very well.

Drink alone and watch TV.
You're expecting harmonies
To tap your tune with silver spoons,
Anthem of impending doom.
Guiding Satan's steady hand,
Forcing Beatle's to dispand.
It's ego freaks and drama queens,
The young at heart know what I mean

The fourth track, "Less Cute" is one of those songs that doesn't define the album, but you aren't going to skip it either. The song has this lovely background noise of brass instruments during the first verse that adds this really upbeat lightheartedness to it. I think I have a thing for brass instruments in songs. The song is a kind of anti-love song. It's about a girl who wants 'the' boy, but cannot get him, so has to settle on someone who is less than their potential. The girl talks about how much she wants the boy and how great he is, and also talks about the inadequacies of the boy she settles on.

Though I fell in love with you, all fey and grizzled and mature
You left me naked, pining, whining on you bathroom floor
If it makes you jealous tell us just which boy we should adore
And we talk about myself so I don't mind that he's a bore

"Eloise", the fifth track, is about getting over a girl, and getting closure with the relationship. It's not my favourite track on the album, but it's a solid mid-album song. It's good, but it doesn't blow me away. On a bad day, I'll skip it. But, to be honest, I don't think I've skipped it yet since I've started listening to this album. It's a good song, but not a great song.

Laid out, puking in the back of a fancy bar.
You and your friends in the front booth,
laughing at my sweet naivety; and its awkward gravity.
Three years, saw the decimation of the world in you.
Messiah complex led a fickle flu,
To see its antidote and end in you...
and now I’m gonna leave you.

Track number six is "Mara and Me". I love this song, a lot. It's just a great song. The song almost seems to have a few separate movements within it, and in just under four minutes, that's quite a variation. It reminds me of Green Day's "Jesus of Suburbia". There are definitely a few different sections, with different guitar sounds and different singing styles. However, this really is not a bad thing. It sounds like it could be very muddled, but it isn't. The lyrics are tight, and the sound is great.

Fake players and the twisted web they weave
I contend that the coming holocaust will be of those who choose to believe
In anything but a phallic sense of self
Hang alone in the attic, tied up tightly with your father's belt

Track seven. "Crush'd". This is probably my favourite song on the whole album. It is a love song for his (then) fiancé, Sherri DuPree. I say then because they married in April this year. This song is beautiful. It's perfectly arranged. The verses have a seemingly techno style to it, but come the pre-chorus, it changes to an acoustic-based track. The songwriting is really quite amazing. If there is one thing that you can rely on Max Bemis for, it is writing really great lyrics. I really love this song. It's innocent and wonderful.

Quite sure you love me, Sherri
Quite sure I love you too
We'll each should make a verbal agreement
To only kiss each other
Because one time, beneath the sky
Outside my New York pigsty
I saw a vision of you and I

"She Won't Follow You" is the eighth song on this record. This is quite a political song for Say Anything. I know that Say Anything do quite often have political undertones, but in this case, it's there on the surface for all to see. It's a song about social standards and loving somebody. How your love for somebody can be a defiance against a society that doesn't promote human relationships. The song sounds a bit like an old My Chemical Romance song, but the lyrics are nothing like that. The idea of love denied by society is one that is prevalent all the time nowadays with the 'issue' of gay marriage almost always making headlines. This song is a nice way of reminding us that behind those headlines, there are people who are affected, and who have to deal with it.

There's nothing like the brain of a beautiful girl
Where they grasp the fallacy of the world
We're in the back room, back to back
Breathing hard, reading the file on the heart they sought to defile

"Cemetery" is another fantastic song. Max Bemis says that it's about how love relates to death. In particular, he says that finding love alleviated his fear of death and growing old. The song is about how love is something that supersedes our physical form; that love carries on after death. Love seems to be a theme that runs through this album, and it is a real reflection of Max Bemis' situation at the time of writing. Bemis really should not stop writing love songs. It seems to be something that has greatly affected him in many ways, and it has certainly aided his (already excellent) songwriting.

And I'll face the one who made,
My disgusting heart from a lump of clay.
Should he ask what got me through,
If he asks me, it was you.

The tenth song is "Property". This was the second song I heard off the album as it was released for free from the band's website. This is such a fun song. The guitars are great, and the lyrics are even better. It is written from the first-person perspective of a right dickhead. He considers the woman that loves him his property. I listened to this song so much when it was released and it still has not work thin on me. It has a really lovely variation between slow, swaying music, and hard, dirty guitars. It's a really good lift towards the end of the album.

Sell you into bondage,
Baby I own you.
You'll entertain all my friends,
Dressed in the latest trendy frocks.
You'll get a tattoo that I am your patriarch.
It's your ambition, soon you will fear the dark.

"Death For My Birthday" sounds like a song that's quite dark and brooding, but it's strangely uplifting. It's an attack on religious people who almost look forward to death, as it is a gate to the afterlife. Bemis, who is himself a religious guy (though not in the traditional sense), says that he is a live-in-the-moment kind of guy. The idea is based around people who see life as problematic, when compared to the advantages of death and the afterlife. As you can tell, that's quite a deep and philosophical issue, but Say Anything make it sound effortless. By taking it in the first-person of a person like this, it really points out how silly and ridiculous a way of living it is. This is another well executed song, with a catchy as hell chorus and great lyrics. At the end of the song, it appears that although people say they cannot wait for the afterlife, in the last moments of their life they will plea for more time on earth.

One sweet day, his heart ceased to beat.
He fell so fast beneath all our feet
Through bugs and snakes, last words he had to say
were 'Help me claw my way to the surface.
Oh sweet Lord, you know I deserved this.
Just one more. Just one more birthday.'

The penultimate track is "Young, Dumb and Stung". Max Bemis describes it as "a healthy version of "Hate Everyone" in which this anger is actually being channelled for the greater good and not blindly thrown out there for anyone who walks by." This is another catchy as hell song. The lyrics verge on inspirational at times and the vibe of 'this is who I am and screw whoever doesn't accept that' really shows. I like this song a lot, and listening to the lyrics only help it along. So many people, including myself, can relate to these lyrics. Probably the most relatable are these:

When I was ten years young, my douche best friend
Decided that I was just not cool enough for him.
My awkward frame and buck-tooth grin
Were no accoutrements for one with a new skin.
Well, late last week I saw that man.
He was far too high to grasp that I shook his hand.
I’ve got my pride and my rock band,
Singing words that he don’t understand.

The closing track is "Ahh... Men", and according to Max Bemis, it is encapsulates how he feels about the universe and spirituality. The title is supposed to have double meaning (Ahh... Men - Amen). I have a feeling that, to Bemis, this is probably the most important song on the record for him (perhaps next to Crush'd). The lyrics are nice and the instrumentals are definitely solid. I like this song, it's quite a slow end to the album, but it's a nice track. Simplicity serves it well.

So can I lie in your grave in the of the edge at the end of the world
Where I will sit with my love in it's fluorescent swirl
Eat us up, break it down to the tiniest cell
In a room with a view and a window to hell
With those who bury bodies in their barrels of fun
We will march through museums that display what they've done.
We'll be shot up through the sky by the cannon of sin
Who reluctantly let them in.

And that's it. Say Anything's fourth album, and I have to say that I am very, very happy with it. I was a bit let down by their last effort, "In Defense of the Genre". It wasn't bad, but it wasn't comparable to "...Is a Real Boy". This however is comparable. It's more mature and features more personal themes.

People often ignore modern punk bands because of this assumption that they are all Californian whiny angsty kids whose appeal doesn't go beyond 15 year olds. However, Say Anything are something else. They take that style, and yet make it sophisticated and symbolic. Bemis has the ability to write a great, upbeat song, yet with some serious undertones to it. For example, Say Anything's most popular song is probably "Alive With the Glory of Love", and that is a song about a Jewish couple who are separated in a concentration camp during the Second World War.

I think I'll give this album 9/10. Max Bemis really seems to have grown up and fleshed out in this album. He's less bitter, and is focusing on the good things in life a hell of a lot more. This is an album about Say Anything as a band, and Max Bemis as a person. I recommend it highly. I also recommend "...Is a Real Boy", but that's a whole other review for a whole other day.

Rating:
9/10

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