IN REVIEW: The Menzingers - "After the Party"

If there's a Gaslight Anthem-shaped hole in your heart after that band announced an indefinite hiatus a couple years back, perhaps The Menzingers' fifth album can ease your suffering a bit. That's not to say that they're a clone of the Jersey rockers, but they do follow a similar motif; their punky, ragged racket is lyrically boosted with hard luck tales of twenty-somethings becoming thirty-somethings in the urban wastelands of America. These nostalgic, heart-on-sleeve litanies are well tread ground, to be sure, but there's something wholly endearing about the way The Menzingers weave the experience together on After the Party.

There are glimpses of greatness throughout their discography, and previous LP Rented World was of a high enough quality that an album as consistently energetic and engaging as After the Party doesn't come off as a complete surprise. Still, it is heartening to hear a band with so much potential live up to it in such convincing fashion. Perhaps it's the maturity that comes with age, perhaps it's the decade the band has spent to date honing their craft; whatever the case, The Menzingers have delivered their most coherent, consistent and relatable album yet.

February 3, 2017 • Epitaph
Highlights Thick as Thieves • Lookers • After the Party

Comments

Year in Rock 2025

Alright, I've got some explaining to do. By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but: a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider . W...

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...

SOUND BITES

Search This Blog