As someone who has been an Alkaline Trio fan for almost as long as the band has existed, just like Crimson and Good Mourning before it, Agony & Irony is more of a disappointment than anything else. Maybe I’m just being one of those guys who says, “I like their early stuff so much better,” but in the case of Alkaline Trio, it is so true.
I remember seeing Alkaline Trio in January or February of 1998 and buying their original demo cassette. This was even before Dan Andriano had joined the band. I remember seeing them a bunch of times at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago. I remember Glenn. I remember how good this band used to be.
Both my wife Amy and I love For Your Lungs Only and Goddamnit but (me more than her) have been slightly disappointed by everything the band has released since drummer Derek Grant joined the band. Yeah, we’ve bought all their records hoping to find something of the “old” Alkaline Trio, but those moments seem to be getting fewer and farther between.
It’s not that Agony & Irony is a bad record; it just isn’t the Alkaline Trio that I loved so long ago and (yes) I’m one of those people that wishes they would have written Goddamnit over and over and over again. The Alkaline Trio just doesn’t feel right with this amount of sheen and all the ridiculous synths that permeate through the songs of Agony & Irony. Despite being much better than Crimson, this isn’t what I was hoping for.
In being so negative about Agony & Irony I’m just trying to be honest. I’m trying to reconcile my feelings about what Alkaline Trio has become and what I wish they still were. In all honesty, if another band had released Agony & Irony it would be easier for me to say positive things, but in comparison to Alkaline Trio’s earlier stuff, this just isn’t the same.
MP3 | Alkaline Trio – Help Me Agony & Irony
This is so not Goddamnit it’s not even Here to Infirmary. Goddamnit.
I like the new look btw.
no its not godamnit, then again only the ramones and motorhead got away with releasing the same songs for 20 years, i like the old and new of the trio, change is necessary or things stagnate. Name me a band who’s early stuff isn’t better than their later output, youth, energy and anger make good albums, older, fatter & richer doesn’t
Yeah, the new one is too polished and clean, but the tunes are still catchy and memorable. Overall, it’s a good listen.
can you believe I just realized that you weren’t in my new google reader. jesus..
yes I couldn’t agree with you more about this record. is that even Matt singing??
oh yeah I just mentioned you in a radio show I did for breakthru radio..
check it out.
talk soon.,
krist
I’m just disappointed. Maybe I’ll Catch Fire is probably my favourite album with Good Mourning coming in a close second (I don’t see at all why people say it was disappointing) and I don’t even think too badly of that split they did with One Man Army… but Jesus.
Crimson disappointed me beyond belief and A&I, while better than Crimson by far, still only has a handful of songs I like on it. And none of them are really Alkaline Trio songs.
If Bad Religion can release albums spanning near enough 30 years and still sound like themselves without catching the “radio happy” bug… well, why can’t anyone else?
It’s not a bad album, but it’s as much an Alkaline Trio album as Kristallnacht is a Jewish holiday.