The Bitter Taste of Truth

Sometimes I need to scream.

As I grow up, the more I realize that my problems hardly amount to anything. My teen angst, i.e. the soil from which I sprung, amounts to nothing compared to the actual struggles of, idunno, growing up in poverty? Not being a white male, perhaps? Yet here I am, barely distinguishable from a sea of young, angry white men, mad that the world isn't what we were promised.

If I had to scream about my own problems these days, I'd scream about a sink full of dirty dishes. I'd scream about how my dating life keeps cutting into my beauty rest. I'd scream about how my kitten keeps on knocking things over. So when I scream, I gotta borrow words.

LETLIVE. is a new discovery to me, on their third album by now. They're a post-hardcore group (Q: what is post-hardcore? A: think of the abrasive sound of 80s hardcore, funnelled into actual songs with melodies) from LA, that are masters at crafting catchy, vitriol-fueled tunes. After a couple spins through "The Blackest Beautiful", I found myself humming along to choruses in nearly every song. And then singing. And then screaming.

Letlive. - Empty Elvis

I seriously love this guy's voice. The whole band exists in a realm between the beautiful screams of The Blood Brothers and the melodic howls of Glassjaw. Although maybe Men Women & Children is a better comparison than Glassjaw, considering the high notes this guy can hit. Yep, these are some of my favorite bands. Letlive. do this pretty unique thing where the voices are usually doubled, tripled even, while the guitars are pushed to the back of the mix. Sure, I love riffs, but this sounds fuckin' ace.

There are some lame parts of this album, for sure. I don't know what the lyrics are about, really - I'm here screaming about poster ghosts - but every time I hit this lyric, I cringe:

With government sucking the dicks of corporations
It looks like Uncle Sam finally put his money where his mouth is

Can't lyrics be ambiguous so that I can make up my own meaning, please?

If home is where the heart is,
Then what do I do with this empty chest?

Too clever by half!

I'm kind of being a jerk though, because the lyrics deal with themes I love, such as love being bullshit, your idols being false, and your desires being spoon-fed to you by corporations to keep you running in their hamster-wheels.^[1]

Anyway, yeah, the production on this album is awesome, and the songwriting is excellent. Not usually the things I care most about with my heavy tunes, but hey, it's really workin' for me.