#MusicReview

PopFilter Presents:

Jason Takes a Musical Suggestion

 

Hello everyone. It’s been a little while since I have had the pleasure of talking to you. And while most of that lapse has been spent dealing with the best and worst of 2012, some of it has been spent mourning the beginning of 2013. Musically, nothing interest-catching has been released so rather than talk about the available garbage, I have been silently waiting for something to say. And then I remembered the PopFilter Podcast’s best albums of 2012. Ryan had told me (admittedly for months) that I need to listen to “On the Impossible Past” by The Menzingers because it’s merit outweighs and transcends its’ pop-punk genre. And so, for the first time, and with your permission I am going to take his suggestion and try to figure out why my esteemed colleague has lauded this album with such high praise. Ladies and gentlemen, I am taking a suggestion. Okay…here we go…

To begin with, this album is not better than Fiona Apple’s 2012 offering of “The Idler Wheel…”. And that’s about as negative as this review is going to get. This album, even though it’s pop-punk through and through, it is not bubble gum. It is thoughtful, passionate and, as hard as this might be to believe, it is important.

When I was forming my musical identity in the 90’s, bands like Weezer, Blink 182 and Green Day were my first step away from the classic rock that my parents were kind enough to bring me up on. These bands proved that people didn’t just sing about concepts and theories but rather some people could make the normal and mundane epochs of their life seem important and, in turn, received a visceral reaction. This is when I figured out that music was a tiny, personal experience. With “On the Impossible Past”, The Menzingers have taken me back to that time. The catch is that they did it without a single ounce of nostalgia.

When I was listening to this album I felt like I was 17 again, sitting in my bedroom and letting the music wash over me. The melodies were as familiar as they were refreshing and interesting. The lyrics are just deep enough that on first listen they wash over you like so much alcohol on an open wound but on repeat consumptions, you get to see how necessary the alcohol is. You begin to be reminded of those times in your life when you didn’t have money or love or anything to call your own. And for the 17 year olds that listen to this album, it will hit them the way that Blink 182 hit me when I was that age.

This album is truly for all ages, and that is not the insult that it usually is for movies and television. When an album like this comes along and rises above its’ genre so obviously, it should be noticed. This album needs to be heard. What The Menzingers are doing is exactly what they want and nothing else. You get the feeling that they didn’t start this band to become famous or get chicks or travel. They started this band because they had a vision that came together and they love making music. And while it’s not the best album of the year from 2012, you (much like me) probably missed it, but that’s okay; just be like me (again). Take the suggestion to consume this album. You will not be sad that you did and you might even find yourself humming their catchier hooks or even singing their deeper-than-they-have-the-right-to-be lyrics.

With Love,

Jason R. Noble