In Defence Of The Genre - Say Anything Album Review

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Album Review

Say Anything’s ‘In Defence Of The Genre’ album features a variety of musical themes, instruments and includes an incredible amount of guest vocalists. The American band’s whopping 27 song double album features over twenty different guest vocalists from rocks young mainstream bands. The band’s first major release sees a near 90 minutes worth of music, although with that sees the inclusion of some less than grand songs.

For the songs ‘Church Channel’ and ‘Plea’ Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams lends a helping hand. ‘Plea’ is a largely downbeat track coated in emotion and sorrow, featuring dramatic violins and slow yet powerful drums. The chorus features band vocalist Max Bemis repeating the words;

If you should go right now

before Hayley Williams enters half way into the track to add backing to the song.

‘Church Channel’ opens with soft vocals and piano introduction, sounding similarly downbeat to ‘Plea’. Following the introduction, the song has a pop-esque guitar which completely changes the songs tone. The song closes with Hayley, accompanied by church bells repeating the lyrics;

Lay your head on me

Say Anything’s second single ‘Shiksa [Girlfriend]’ proved a rather dull and drab single choice. The song has a decent enough verse without being anything fantastic, yet the slow and tedious chorus just constantly repeats the same five words, without achieving the same success of previous songs.

The bands other release in America is ‘Baby Girl I’m A Blur’ proves to be a little better, with the quick change from guitar to keyboard mid-song proving to be a nice addition. The solo towards of the end of the song helps distinguish break the bands onslaught of slow based lyrics too.

’People Like You Are Why People Like Me Exist’ sounds like a typical contemporary rock song, whilst My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way provides the backing vocals to ‘In Defence Of The Genre’. ‘Goodbye Young Tutor, You've Now Outgrown Me’ however is a slow and frustrating addition to the album, seemingly never ending and rather lifeless throughout.

The album ‘In Defence of the Genre’ has its moments of sheer quality. Tracks such as ‘Plea’ and ‘Church Channel’ are downtrodden songs any band would be proud of, yet both singles ‘Baby Girl I’m A Blur’ and ‘Shiksa’ are nothing special, with the latter really being an awful track. The need to include so many guest vocalists could be construed as either a publicity stunt or maybe even the band covering up a weak effort by including high profile stars. I think if you whittled the album down to a 12 or 13 single album, this could be a great album. The 27 tracks are too long and remind me of the horrific Red Hot Chilli Peppers ‘Stadium Arcadium’ which was slated for its length. Within the CD, the great tracks are really something. The other tracks are to put it bluntly, piss poor. It’s worth a listen but far from classic.

Tom Crowther