Tracks
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Say what you will about AFI's more "mainstream" work, but I've always loved this album. It's some of their most diverse and creative work ever. My favorites...
Prelude 12/21: Leave it to AFI to create a short intro track without which the rest of the album would be inevitably lacking. The music-box sound (whether genuine or synthesized, I can't tell) was a great choice for this. It begins this wintry gothic album with something that easily and aesthetically expresses both. Lyrically, I think it's written from the point of view of someone who overestimated the potential for love to be had with a given other person, who worked hard to please them and now feels let-down because said other person wasn't as reciprocal as they claimed, or at least implied themselves to be.
Miss Murder: This is a catchy, bouncy song to which I love to jam-out. The way the words are written is horribly twelve-year-old emo-naive, but apparently there are still people who have some lesson or other to learn by identifying with that. And despite the eye-rolling that some of the lyrical message gets from me, it's still a fun song to sing. What I do love about this is the breakdown, the music of which is written in a way that instantly calls my mind back to AFI's early independent goth-punk style, all dark and halloweeny (yes, I did just turn that into an adjective. Deal.) Also, in case you didn't catch this, the shrieking part of the bridge-section, beginning with "we're the empty set just floating-through..." is a reference to Smeagol/Gollum's story in "Lord of the Rings." This seems like kind of an ADD moment on the part of Davey Havok since I have no idea what that has to do with suicide as a means to preserve beauty. But I can still get into it. Overall this song has style and is also very dark, which is part of its catchiness. It's different.
Love Like Winter: I was immediately swept-up by this song the first time I heard it. It's very creative the way they begin with the quick pacing of footsteps on a hard (and I would imagine cold) floor that becomes a syncopated drum-beat. I sense something almost incestuous about the story told in this song. "It's in the blood, it's in the blood - I met my love before I was born" seems in reference to one or more blood-relatives (maybe twins) especially followed by "she wanted love, I taste of blood. She bit my lip and drank my war from years before..." which has a very intimate sort of masochistically-sexual edge to it. I especially appreciate the mixture of electric guitar with effects like a slicer (the choppy sound on that one-strum in the chorus) with more symphonic sounds like bow-and-stringed instruments as well as processed synth sounds, all in good measure.
37mm: This is a nifty, dark sort of song. Although I hear very little of AFI's original sound in this song, and much more synth (it has almost an 80's-electronica feel to it) I wouldn't be without this song in my collection. Speaking of incestuous sentiment, this song also has lyrics that draw my mind in that direction. "Parents, can you hear me? Press me to your lips and I'll suck the poison out..."? I mean, what else is that supposed to imply? I like that it's all dark and synthy in the verses, and Jade amps it up by jamming-out on the overdriven electric guitar in the choruses.
Head Like a Hole: *Tremendous* cover. I love the echoing sound that they bring in in the intro. It brings kind of a "spectral" energy to the song. They also play this song MUCH harder and faster than NIN did, which makes me happeh-face. ^_^
Overall, five stars. A great album, and any issues I may have with some of the content are trivial and easily forgivable.
Prelude 12/21: Leave it to AFI to create a short intro track without which the rest of the album would be inevitably lacking. The music-box sound (whether genuine or synthesized, I can't tell) was a great choice for this. It begins this wintry gothic album with something that easily and aesthetically expresses both. Lyrically, I think it's written from the point of view of someone who overestimated the potential for love to be had with a given other person, who worked hard to please them and now feels let-down because said other person wasn't as reciprocal as they claimed, or at least implied themselves to be.
Miss Murder: This is a catchy, bouncy song to which I love to jam-out. The way the words are written is horribly twelve-year-old emo-naive, but apparently there are still people who have some lesson or other to learn by identifying with that. And despite the eye-rolling that some of the lyrical message gets from me, it's still a fun song to sing. What I do love about this is the breakdown, the music of which is written in a way that instantly calls my mind back to AFI's early independent goth-punk style, all dark and halloweeny (yes, I did just turn that into an adjective. Deal.) Also, in case you didn't catch this, the shrieking part of the bridge-section, beginning with "we're the empty set just floating-through..." is a reference to Smeagol/Gollum's story in "Lord of the Rings." This seems like kind of an ADD moment on the part of Davey Havok since I have no idea what that has to do with suicide as a means to preserve beauty. But I can still get into it. Overall this song has style and is also very dark, which is part of its catchiness. It's different.
Love Like Winter: I was immediately swept-up by this song the first time I heard it. It's very creative the way they begin with the quick pacing of footsteps on a hard (and I would imagine cold) floor that becomes a syncopated drum-beat. I sense something almost incestuous about the story told in this song. "It's in the blood, it's in the blood - I met my love before I was born" seems in reference to one or more blood-relatives (maybe twins) especially followed by "she wanted love, I taste of blood. She bit my lip and drank my war from years before..." which has a very intimate sort of masochistically-sexual edge to it. I especially appreciate the mixture of electric guitar with effects like a slicer (the choppy sound on that one-strum in the chorus) with more symphonic sounds like bow-and-stringed instruments as well as processed synth sounds, all in good measure.
37mm: This is a nifty, dark sort of song. Although I hear very little of AFI's original sound in this song, and much more synth (it has almost an 80's-electronica feel to it) I wouldn't be without this song in my collection. Speaking of incestuous sentiment, this song also has lyrics that draw my mind in that direction. "Parents, can you hear me? Press me to your lips and I'll suck the poison out..."? I mean, what else is that supposed to imply? I like that it's all dark and synthy in the verses, and Jade amps it up by jamming-out on the overdriven electric guitar in the choruses.
Head Like a Hole: *Tremendous* cover. I love the echoing sound that they bring in in the intro. It brings kind of a "spectral" energy to the song. They also play this song MUCH harder and faster than NIN did, which makes me happeh-face. ^_^
Overall, five stars. A great album, and any issues I may have with some of the content are trivial and easily forgivable.