Bodies - AFI: Review
AFI
are a California band with a complicated 30 years history of pop punk, hardcore punk and post-hardcore in their back catalog. The group is perhaps most famous for some of their heavy pop punk flavored hits in the 2000's and have maintained a connection to the world of pop punk despite the influences of emo and post-hardcore that still exist in their style to this day.
Review By Lav:
While the first half of last decade went pretty poorly for AFI, like really poorly. In the what have you done for me recently world of music AFI actually has some clout to work with. Their 2017 record The Blood Album was one of their best in a long time and I enjoyed their The Missing Man EP quite a bit too. An astonishing 7 of the records 11 tracks were released as singles in the lead up to the album so I had a pretty good idea of what the record was going to be like going into it. And as it turns out those estimations were accurate as for everything time the record does something right, it does something confusing and ugly at the next turn.
Lets talk highlights first of which the record legitimately has. Twisted Tongues was by far the most impressive single and serves as the opening track is it has so much catchy pop punkiness and enticing drama. I love the vocals and the shifts they make throughout the track and plus the instrumental is intense without ever really dominating the mix. My other favorite track on the record is also a 2000's channeling pop punk rager Looking Tragic. The song has a slick hook and wailing lead guitar that come together in an absolutely infectious way.
There are a number of shorter songs on the record hovering around the two and a half minute mark and on the first half of the record they translate pretty well. Far Too Near is a short and to the point rendition of the bands sound. While it can be on the tamer side vocally it has quite the instrumental array and a moderately catchy hook. It doesn't quite blow me away as much as it could because the song has some compression in its mix that caps off how exciting it can be. On Your Back is another shorter track and it tries to pack quite a lot into that runtime. There is plenty of dramatic vocalizing and bouncy guitars that give it a stage ready presentation. I've actually kind of come around to how grand everything is on the track and started to enjoy it more.
The two songs that close the album off are also a decent combo. No Eyes kicks off with a roaring guitar riff and even though the hook and bridge have grown on me quite a bit I always feel like they could be a little bit more exciting to match some of the instrumental passages. The more exciting track is the closer Tied To A Tree which features some genuinely incredible climactic moments. There are long drawn out verses and instrumental passages but I don't necessarily find them all that slow or sleepy because they are so effectively working towards the eruptions into anthemic hooks that always follow. It's a fitting closing track and I'm not sure I've heard the band do something like this, as good as this, in a long time.
Dulceria drew some attention for getting Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins having a co-writer credit on the song, but beyond that is isn't much aside from a strange detour. The track kicks off with a fat bass riff which sounds well out of AFI's territory but honestly I sort of started to like it. The thing that really kills the track for me is the deflating chorus which prevents me from really every buying all the way into the track. Lyrically on the record it feels like AFI is dabbling in quite a few subjects that we've come to expect from the band. Every once in a while they step outside the box and write something outside the box like Escape From Los Angeles, but it doesn't always translate over well. The song is decent but has a total miss on the hook. Everything in the mix elevates together sonically including the vocals and you can't really make out much of anything at the tracks highest peak. I'm not that big a fan of the glittery keys in the first place and even though there are some decent refrains the performances and arrangement let them down.
Back From The Flesh is a slow burner that I think is just okay. While some of the eerie vocalizing and distant drumming can give the track a very haunting atmosphere, the refrains themselves aren't that impactful and don't build up to anything like the closing track does. Neither of the other two short tracks on the record do much for me either. Begging For Trouble has a complete whiff of a hook and as much as I'd like to enjoy the string section I think its put to really bad use. The song bounces between this vulnerable vocal style and this bravado that just sound super awkward beside each other. Death Of The Party is an okay song with an absolutely fucking incessant metallic tin coming off the drums that is insanely annoying on both my headphones and a speaker. I really did have to check on both cause I'm not sure how you include a sound like that on a song like this. I suppose it doesn't ruin everything on the song but it does induce a headache pretty much every time I listen to it.
After hearing most of what the record had to offer being released as singles I had an idea of how inconsistent it was going to be, and it was exactly that inconsistent. Not just from a quality standpoint but also soinically and thematically it is hard to find the through lines of these songs. While I am definitely taking a few big highlights away from the album I don't see it as one of their best, or a necessarily promising release for what they may do next, but the band has surprised me before. 5.5/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
