No band rivals Against Me! in terms of the amount of abuse it takes from its own fanbase. The same people that listened to Reinventing Axl Rose until they knew every syllable and note by heart, have spent much of the past few years venomously spitting words like “hypocrite,” “sell-out,” and “fake” at Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel. Undeterred but not unaware, Against Me!’s new album White Crosses pushes the band into new territory. The cynics are sure to spend hours debating whether the band is still punk or if it’s now just rock. But this inane hair splitting misses the real question – is the music still any good? To answer simply – yes.
Because of the punk “purist” backlash, any discussion about White Crosses has to begin with the album’s first single “I Was Teenage Anarchist.” The song is the closest to Against Me!’s previous work, excelling thanks Gabel’s lyrical transition from deeply personal verses – addressing the disconnect between his present and his anarchist past – to a huge chorus that rings with a universal relatability (“Do you remember when you were young and want to set the world on fire?”). To the “hypocrite” and “sell-out” crowd, this tune seems like the perfect ammunition to prove that Gabel’s past work – most specifically Reinventing Axl Rose‘s rallying ode “Baby, I’m An Anarchist” – is nothing but lies and spineless posturing. How can he still play “Baby, I’m An Anarchist” live when he screams “The revolution was a lie” in “I Was Teenage Anarchist”?
But look at the songs for what they really are. At their core they are not political rallying cries. “Baby, I’m An Anarchist” is a love song and “I Was A Teenage Anarchist” is its accompanying break-up song. Looking at “Baby, I’m An Anarchist”‘s lyrics, it’s about a guy who is unable to reconcile severe political differences (“You believe in authority, I believe in myself. I’m a molotov cocktail. You’re Dom Perignon.”) in order to have a relationship. His true love isn’t another person – it’s the anarchist ideal. But just like a bad girlfriend, time together has shown Gabel that his love isn’t the perfect entity he thought it was. They’ve drifted apart. Things have been said that can’t be unsaid. There are irreconcilable differences between the two parties. And on track two of White Crosses they split up for good. Like any worthwhile break-up song “I Was A Teenage Anarchist” combines a hint of the good times of the past (the chorus) with a bitterness and realization of how flawed the ex was. “The scene was to rigid” in the same way someone can feel suffocated in a relationship. No one bats an eyelash when a songwriter falls in love and writes songs about their lover, only to have an ugly split which leads to angry songs about the ex. In Gabel’s case, he fell in love with an ideal. Stones should not be tossed his way because the spark faded.
One thing that hasn’t faded is Gabel’s songwriting skill, though White Crosses certainly has a different musical feel than previous Against Me! albums. The boot-stomping opener “White Crosses” features the most traditional guitar lead the band has ever tried. “Because Of The Shame” brings the piano to the forefront to underscore its finely crafted tale of heartbreak and loss. “Ache With Me” works because of the way the acoustic vulnerability is mixed with details like heavy reverbed “chickuh-ah”s in the background and high – almost whinny – trilled electric guitar that creeps in.
White Crosses‘s tempo is decidedly less frenetic than past efforts, and occasionally the energy can suffer as a result. “We’re Breaking Up” and “Suffocation” aren’t able to incite enough emotion or visceral reaction to stand out in the way the other tracks do, and hence, get lost in the shuffle. The one song that defies the rest of the album’s pace is “Rapid Decompression,” a old-school punk downstroke fest. While the way it sticks out from the rest of White Crosses makes it feel like a bone thrown to Against Me!’s oldest fans to satiate their hunger for a circle pit, but that okay because it’s pure rabble-rousing fun.
The biggest fault with White Crosses is it’s too polished. Kurt Cobain famously had a problem with the way that the Butch Vig produced Nevermind sounded so slick and polished. Well, White Crosses sounds about 10 times as polished as Nirvana’s classic. It’s easiest to hear the overproduction in shinny to pop singer standards backup vocals on a song like “Spanish Moss” (I like Andrew Seward and James Bowman as backup singers, so why take away their gruffness in lieu of fake sounding “perfection”?). It’s also evident in things like the rounder, smoother guitar tones. The problem is that Against Me! is sounds great gritty. This became clear last year when the band released the original raw recordings of As The Eternal Cowboy as The Original Cowboy. As it turns out, The Original Cowboy‘s rough energy is sonically superior to the polished of As The Eternal Cowboy. It’s more alive. It has the rough edges that Vig seems to have buffed to a shine on White Crosses. Still, this flaw is not enough to sink the album by any means – it is just a tad frustrating. Against Me! is best when in wild horse mode and Vig pulled a bit too tight on the reins.
White Crosses marks the separation of Against Me!’s past from its future. While it is not the seminal work Reinventing Axl Rose is, it shares that album’s spirit. No – not that of the anarchist punk – that of Tom Gabel and company making the music they want to make on their terms. That’s authenticity, and authenticity never goes out of style.
Review Score: 7.9
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