RIYL: Alkaline Trio, The Misfits, Naked Raygun
In punk years, AFI have been around for a lifetime. While many of their mid-’90s counterparts have bitten the dust or become completely irrelevant, the Northern California quartet have kept their career fresh through a series of albums where they’ve opened up their material to all sorts of sonic experimentation. The band started out as a dime-a-dozen melodic punk band in the vein of Bad Religion, but their more recent output has revealed everything from synthpop to Goth-rock leanings woven into their assault. For the last decade or so, Davey Havok (vocals) and Jade Puget (guitars) have been the primary driving forces behind AFI’s open-ended songwriting style.
On their newly released album, Crash Love, AFI tone down the electronic flourishes of their last full-length effort (2006’s decemberunderground) which, looking back, did come off heavy-handed at times. Puget’s guitars are pushed to the front of the mix while Havok’s candy-coated vocal melodies take center stage. There are still some of those electro touches included, like the drum loops in “End Transmission,” but they are harder to find. Listeners who fell in love with the band from hits like “Girls Not Grey” and “Silver and Cold” don’t have much to complain about this time out.
“OK, I Feel Better Now” and “I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here” are the kind of modern rock nuggets that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on their breakthrough Sing the Sorrow album while the pulsating rhythms in “Too Shy to Scream” are sprinkled with Marc Bolan and Suzi Quatro glam dust. Havok and company even prove they can spool together a bonafide pop gem in the irresistible “Veronica Sawyer Smokes.”
Producer Garret “Jacknife” Lee (Bloc Party, Kasabian) does a splendid job of blending the textural nuances with AFI’s anthemic qualities. All of the act’s strengths are at full display on Crash Love and Lee highlights all of the right instrumental spots in all of the right moments. He does especially impressive work with the lead and background vocals and if you know AFI’s discography already, you’ll know how impactful that aspect of their attack is. There isn’t that one song to truly push the album into the four-star range, but you would be hard-pressed to find a better alt-rock record hitting shelves for the rest of the year. (Interscope 2009)
