One Man Army Split,
Alkaline TrioBYO have steadily been building quite a reputation with their split series, with most of the series being solid fares with some heavyweight artists. The Fifth incarnation in that series is now upon us and features perhaps the most balanced pairing yet – Alkaline Trio and One Man Army. Those of you familiar with the split know the drill by know. Both bands get six songs each, and you get two quality bands for the price of one.
It is Alkaline Trio who have the first half of the record and they make the most of it. I’ve always been a fan of the trio, particularly for their consistently high song writing standards. However, the production on their last effort, ‘Good Mourning’, really put me off – it was way beyond ‘slick’. Thankfully, the six songs on offer here have much better production values; clean and crisp without being over the top. Despite Matt again taking the majority of the vocal duties it is Dan who enjoys the lead vocals on two of the better songs. His voice is dripping in melancholy and gives both ‘Hating Every Minute’ and the superb ‘If You Had A Bad Time’ the perfect downbeat atmosphere. Skiba gives us two tracks that are good but pretty standard trio fare – ‘Fine Without You’ and ‘Dead And Broken’. Both are stuffed full of buzzing guitar riffs and supremely dark lyrics. The cover of ‘Wait For The Blackout’ is a tad predictable but ‘Sadie’ is something else. I can’t remember the band writing as good a song as this for sometime.
The second half of the split is given over to One Man Army, another talented band, that unfortunately haven’t made that big a name for themselves on this side of the Atlantic. One Man Army, play at a pace not dissimilar to Alkaline Trio, but they wear their old school influences more obviously. The other plus for this outfit is lead singer Jack’s vocals, some of the most distinctive in punk rock today. From the onset of the bouncy ‘The TV Song’ you realise this is a poppier set than last album, the cracking ‘Rumours and Headlines’. However, the six songs on offer are still strong, and well worth owning. The likes of ‘All The Way’ and the superbly titled ‘The Radio Airwaves Gave Me A Lobotomy’ are quality songs, well written and well performed. Final song ‘Lets call It An Evening’ is the pick of the bunch. It is a rousing sing along and proves to be a fitting climax to an enjoyable record.
The simple fact of the matter is that if you are a fan of either band you need to own this split recording. Both bands produce some great new material that sits well alongside other work they have done. Alkaline Trio and One Man Army prove to be a winning combination and this is just about the best BYO split release yet.
Mark
