The Menzingers, a Philadelphia-based US band, are back with their seventh studio album, Some Of It Was True, featuring 13 new tracks. The band worked with producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, The War on Drugs, Waxahatchee), who brilliantly captured the live energy of the Menzingers. This record truly sounds like you’re at a show in a way that previous albums did not.
The album is energetic from start to finish, opening with “Hope Is a Dangerous Little Thing”, which begins with a single guitar and vocals from Greg Barnett before the rest of the band kicks in full force. The track finds Barnett in love with someone who is in love with someone else and dealing with feelings of inadequacy in a gritty urban background.
“There’s No Place in This World For Me” discusses the conflict of wanting to be somewhere else, and when you’re there, wishing you were back home, and trying to find a balance between the two. During a European tour, Barnett met fans who had fled Russia in opposition to the war, stating, “They were the epitome of the song – they had nowhere left to go.”
The track opens with Barnett singing the first line unaccompanied before the drums and bass join the mix. The first verse takes a nostalgic look back at the invincibility of youth while the chorus admits the fallacy of those days as Barnett belts out, “The older I get, the less I know/And I knew nothing then.” In the second verse, Barnett recognizes that things only seem better because we tend to forget the bad parts.
“Come On, Heartache” is a departure from the typical Menzingers sound in that it doesn’t prominently feature the distorted guitar work of their punk rock roots. The track wouldn’t be out of place with certain late-80s rock bands musically. While Barnett may have screamed some of the lyrics on earlier albums, his voice here is rich, and the backing vocals are excellent.
The album concludes with “Runnin'”, a track that is both melancholy and hopeful simultaneously. Barnett sings about a relationship gone sour and running away to somewhere new, trying to maintain hope. The sadness in the verses is somewhat offset by the chorus in which he sings, “It’s so hard to be hopeful/I’m a terrible wreck on the inside/Its so hard to be hopeful/But I promise you I’ll try/To always see the big picture/To find faith in the future.
The Menzingers have perfected the craft of infusing punk rock with Americana. Some Of It Was True will be seen as a timeless record featuring a blend of tracks from multiple perspectives with themes of nostalgia, loneliness, love, and heartache.
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