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Hello everyone!

I know, I know.  It’s been a long time since we’ve podcasted.  And we were doing so well, too!  (That is, keeping to our schedule, not success!).  I’ve been having strong convictions lately, urging me to blog.  As Steve previously mentioned, we are SUPER busy and have conflicting schedules prohibiting us from recording.  This will no doubt end with the summer months and soon enough we’ll be gracing your ears.  To bide my time, I want to try to update the blog with things on my mind.  I beg Steve to do the same, as he feels necessary.

After one of Steve’s posts about purchasing music, I felt compelled to evaluate my library, both hardcopy and digital.  I noticed that, while I do buy music on iTunes, I was not buying many CDs anymore.  I’ve decided to pick up a couple CDs a month.  I started with Weezer Red Album, BOTH of The Hush Sound albums, the Reggie and the Full Effect’s ‘Last Stop Crappytown’ album, John Mayer’s ‘Where the Light Is’ CD/DVD set, and a few others, not to mention a few iTunes albums such as The Dark Knight Soundtrack (Hans Zimmer), Punk Goes Crunk, and the aforementioned ‘Agony & Irony’ by Alkaline Trio.

I’m loving the ability to download music directly on my shiny new iPhone 3G.  While waiting for a meeting to start the other night, I logged on with my phone and previewed the newest Alk3 album.  I really dug the opening track “Calling All Skeletons”.  This, and the fact that the Deluxe Edition came with 6 bonus ACOUSTIC tracks and an iTunes exclusive track was enough for me to spend the $12.99 on it.

PHENOMENAL.

Now I haven’t been a HUGE fan of Alk3.  My first taste of them was the video for “Stupid Kid” on the Vagrant DVD back in the day (probably 2003).  I loved the song and really dug ‘From Here to Infirmary’.  I even went with Steve to see them in concert.  It was No Motiv, From Autumn to Ashes, Reggie and the Full Effect, and Alkaline Trio.  Reggie was obviously the best part of the show, but Alkaline Trio were pretty good.  The problem I had was I couldn’t tell most of their songs from each other.  They just sounded pretty generic to me.  I did have the Matt Skiba/Kevin Seconds split, and some random Skiba stuff.  I really dug the acoustic stuff Matt does.  From here, I started listening to The Falcon, with Dan Andriano [and former Lawrence Arms guys]. But nevermind.

‘Agony & Irony’ is a masterpiece of catchy punk sweetness wrapped in a bitter verse of macabre and bitterness.  Every track on this album is worthy of its spot.  “Calling All Skeletons” is probably the raddest opener to an album I’ve heard this year.  The second track, “Help Me”, is just as powerful and anthematic acoustic as electric. The album continues on with a complete catalog of amazing tracks and rounds it off with a spatter of heartache and acoustic guitars.  I personally really dig hearing both versions of some of the album tracks, sometimes preferring the acoustic tracks to the electric ones.  That’s not to say the electric versions are somehow not as awesome as the acoustic ones.  “Over and Out” and “Live Young Die Fast” are my favorites of the acoustic tracks.  These album tracks aren’t a far departure from previous albums, especially ‘Crimson’, but when you have a good thing goin’, why do something to mess it up?

While the majority of the album is completely solid on its own, I feel “Love Love Kiss Kiss” and “Lost and Rendered” are possibly the weak links on an otherwise stellar package.  It should be noted that Dan sings on “Love Love Kiss Kiss”.  This isn’t the weak spot, but worth noting.  Dan does a fine job singing and is a great musician.  I do like the acoustic version of “Lost and Rendered” better than the original version.

Overall, this is a rock-solid album from Alkaline Trio.  There are very few flawless albums out there.  This is not one of them.  The minor flaws do stick out and mildly taint the overall flow of the album.  If you are going out to buy this album, pick up the Deluxe Version in all its glorious packaging!  If we did a rating system, I’d probably give it a 4 or 4.5 stars (out of 5).  I like stars.  Anyway, go stream it off of their site by clicking the link below, and look for it in all major retailers, or purchase digitally from iTunes or other links on their website.

Anyway guys, I hope this was somewhat informative, though informal, and gets you guys out there buying music!  Enjoy the nice weather.  Email us at insertfans@gmail.com or leave us feedback.

Jerry

ALKALINE TRIO website