“I’m waiting to break like teenage heart in America,” wails Matt Skiba on Teenage Heart, just one of a ton of superb tracks on Alkaline Trio’s first album in six years. It’s a thoughtful record, the view of outsiders watching the world become even more unpleasant than their early lurid fantasies could have predicted, taking it all in with maturity and a raised eyebrow. Early single Bad Time bursts with bewilderment and the desire to feel a human connection in the midst of insanity, as well as one of the most pleasingly nuts Alkaline Trio lines we’ve heard in a while (“I’m being stalked by Latin Royalty and Me and Marty just ate Shrooms”), but then there’s the echoing post-punk shadows of Versions Of You to haunt your aching heart. Sure, there’s very little of the cinematic slasher gore that we’ve come to associate with the lads over the years, but they wear their maturity and nuance with such style that you won’t feel let down by the lack of shocker lyrics. All in, this is the record that proves why Alkaline Trio have achieved such enduring success over the last two plus decades.
