Barriers - Frank Iero and The Future Violents: Review
Frank Iero
Is the former rhythm guitarist for one of pop punk's most popular acts My Chemical Romance. After 4 studio albums the band called it quits and since then Frank Iero has started an ever evolving solo project and released three albums under changing monikers. Though none have been met with overwhelming critical praise or popularity they continue to appeal to Iero's cult following as well as fans of the first two My Chemical Romance albums.Review By Lavender:
While I am a pretty strong supporter of the idea that the My Chemical Romance discography is underrated and much more innovative and consistent than people give it credit for, I will also be the first to admit I didn't have high expectations for a Frank Iero solo career. This came true for me when he released Stomachaches under the frnkiero and the cellabration moniker. The albums was a misfire that tried to blend the expressionism of emo with the extremity of Post-Hardcore but fell short in its organization and execution. This is why I was so surprised and excited when Frank switched up his approach on his second solo work Parachutes. The album is much tighter thematically and sonically sticks comfortably within the pop punk and emo realms and won me over with refreshing songwriting and dramatic performances. After deciding to skip on the singles released for this album I was very surprised to hear that not only has the album abandoned Frank's sharp connection with emo music, but it completely avoids settling on any one sound at all.
The primary issue I have with a number of these tracks here is that there are a lot of moments exposing Frank as an underwhelming vocalist and tracks that are hurt by some of his underwhelming performances. Fever Dream is a song with a lot of forgettable qualities but the one thing that is impossible to ignore is the strange and wailing vocals Frank is delivering all over this thing. Both the hook and bridge contain some wild vocalizing that is shrill and incredibly distracting and kills what little momentum the song has. The Unfortunate is a strange song that features some 60's style surf rock guitars that I actually like a lot but the very weak vocals on the verses and the painful straining on the hook drag the track down. Police Police is probably the worst vocal performance here and while the songwriting is also particularly terrible the song doesn't even get a chance to start as Frank tries so hard to hit all the notes but misses and sometimes very painfully. Finally the last of the really bad vocals show up on Six Feet Down under but the track thankfully makes up for it. It has some spoken word in the beginning that I absolutely love and the blaring background guitars mixed down in some of the tracks quietest moments give it great texture and make the vocal short-comings easy to ignore given how much else the song does well.
Strangely enough there are a few points on this record where instead of singing poorly Frank is directly impersonating other singers, often with some strange influences. The opening track A New Day's Coming features organ sounds and channels both heartland rock and modern folk. Frank sounds so much like Conor Oberst it's scary and if I heard this track with no context I swear I might would have guessed this was a Better Oblivion Community Center B-Side or something, The song is pretty decent and I like it as an opener but it is never the type of track I would have expected to hear. The Conor Oberst vocals come up again on Basement Eyes with some compositional left turns that I didn't quite expect that keep the track fresh and interesting. Medicine Square Garden and Young And Doomed both sound straight out of the My Chemical Romance book but neither of them really achieve the same sharp songwriting and fun performances of Frank's prior band, Even on top of these tracks there are still a few more sleepers in The Host, Ode To Destruction, and Great Party that fail to make much of an impression at all and end up drowning in lackluster pop punk sounds.
Despite my issues with much of this record there are a handful of tracks that I came away from pretty positively. No Love is a contemporary rock tune at its core but features some great songwriting that holds my attention really well and its driving percussion is one of the only sounds of life the drums give off on this whole record. 24k Lush is a touch melodramatic but a solid closing moment with some of the grandest and most epic songwriting on the entire record. It has both loud and quiet moments that work well together and is a decent way to close off a record that makes me excited right at the end and may effect my opinions immediately after listening more than I'd like to admit.
Moto Pop is by FAR the best song here and one that on its own keeps me excited for what Frank may do next. The song sees Frank FINALLY becoming a charismatic frontman as he channels Zach De La Rocha on this absolute banger of a classic punk inspired tune. The track is fast, fun and energetic and reminds me of a heavier version of some songs on Danger Days, one of my favorite albums of this decade and a painfully underrated piece of MCR history.
Barriers may be the weakest of Frank Iero's solo albums yet. Even though it reaches a few highs overall the songs here are conceptually and sonically far to inconsistent and listening to them back to back tends to be quite the chore. Coming off of Parachutes the complete lack of consistency here or touch with what made that album so surprisingly good proves to me that it was more stumbling into greatness rather than calculating it, but nonetheless I still have the credit to give Frank's talent to stick around and see what he does next. Barriers is far too long and forgettable for its own good. 4/10
Best Track: Moto Pop
For more pop punk check out my review of Remo Drive's Natural, Everyday Degradation here.
