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Rating: Discovered by Fat Mike, the singer of one of the most famous punk hardcore bands in history: NOFX; the Lagwagon started their career in 1992, led by frontman Joey Cape, joining the record label Fat Wreck Chords and have continued to produce great music until now. In fact, they recently released their seventh studio album: Resolve. But to talk about the album I chose to review, we need to jump back to 1997, the year when the great Let's Talk About Feelings came out, which confirms the group's great ability to write melodic and engaging music. Let me clarify right away that I don't exactly know the reason why the group chose that particular girl for the cover; anyway, and I think you'll all agree, it wasn't really a great choice.
Let’s start by describing the album: the first things you can notice are the harmonized guitars that create a truly captivating sound accompanied by a sweet and harmonious voice. As for the rhythm section, bass and drums cover every area where the music might seem sparse, playing incredibly fast and furious tempos. The first example is given right by the opening track, the fantastic "After You My Friend", which features a particular interval in the middle that completely breaks the punk hardcore and then suddenly resumes. Staying within the punk rock context, it continues with "Gun In Your Hand", a melodic track with great variations highlighting the drummer’s precision and his very convincing touch. A great drum roll kicks off the lightning-fast "Leave The Light On" and subsequently "Change Despair". Following the fantastic melody of the fifth track: "Train", there’s a brief interlude lasting a few seconds yet sweeping away everything with its devastating speed. After the romantic "Love Story", we move to the great "Messengers", a sensational track with a truly framing-worthy finale. Introduced by the acoustic piece "The Kids Are All Wrong" comes one of Lagwagon’s most known tracks: "May 16th", a melodic, original song with great time variations and perfectly connecting guitars. The task of bidding farewell to the listeners is left to the poignant "Owen Meany", which with its sweet notes leaves us in the best possible way.
Lagwagon, like many other bands playing this genre, manage to always deliver that sensational energy that leaves you astounded, but they do it with something extra, that unique quality that makes them exceptional. Want a piece of advice? Buy this album and you’ll realize what I’m talking about!!!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 After You My Friend (02:34)
Here he is, he saves a grin
He wants to be the one who doesn't have to sink a level
Indiscrete, in his retreat
All he needs is just a taste of the bitter pride
He held in her name
Embrace the solitude of ordinary fucked up state of grace
Far away from the days he bared the cross she used to wear
In some resolve well aware
A little pitiful, a pin up boy they dress in grieving wear
Well at ease in consent in the drift of undertow
He won't justify the pity from them
When he knows....fools in love are arrogant
Their sermons cloud his breathing air
He's in love with an isolation from emotion
Here he is awaiting sentence
A fool to think that anyone can escape guilt and anguish
A subtlety that can't be learned
A subtlety that can't be taught
He is caught in the lure of second thoughts
He might still care
As he settles down well aware
Bound in secrecy. His voice will only dignify their fears
But sorrow is signified
He's well aware of his pride
02 Gun in Your Hand (02:02)
You jump in front of the bullet
The family put you to it
You might survive the first thousand shots
back to the end of the line
You hold the will to survive them
Answer to those you have failed
Time to clean up your room and show you are able to stop
beating yourself down
You've arrived
A wealth of respect, a world of regard
You've always belonged
You have to go on
I just want you to feel the gun in your hand
You used to hold aspiration
You couldn't see the limitations
Even in your youth you were unsurpassed
but driven by grief and it couldn't last
Sometimes promise, sometimes goodbye
Confessed to all through bloodshot eyes
I just want you to feel the gun in your hand (yeah)
It only breaks you until you get off
I'm not gonna watch you kill yourself to live
It's all so average until you get off
I'm not gonna wait here until the body's cold
I just want you to feel the gun in your hand
03 Leave the Light On (01:54)
So please leave the light on after you've gone
Leave the pictures in their aging frames where they belong
Leave the bed sheets unclean and they will reek of you still
Cover me in resolve
So please leave the imagery
I can twist it
Dissociation and obsession
Superstition and pain
I can carry them on too and bury you once again
If I could bring this memory to life
I'd apologize
I live to hear you say what they can't
I would make amends
They'd all love to have you back but...
I'd give anything to bring you back to say goodbye
04 Change Despair (01:55)
Everything that I've done here into one in keeping with...
Some earned conviction, some stagnation, some change despair
dissapointed and odds
in a costume you can't take off
Leave it behind. I know that this time I get in for free
Our latest rendition lame
Reincarnate, return the same
Still the best times are here now.
Now that I'm bored, now that I'm numb
Done, I know this is wrong
Safe in that stance but incomplete
I leave it behind. I know that this time I get out for free
Some of it's habitual
some of it's predictable
Sometimes the change is not enough
And in the lost empathy
memories of better days
05 Train (02:24)
My inspiration note the sympathy
They've taken everything you want and they left you all alone
My setting sun, self appointed,
I am a fraud
You are the martyr
It's decided and I owe you several worlds I can tell you...
Rat in the sewer, scraps they left behind
Once their visionary, and they all have robbed you blind
Your broken records playing for
None fabricate song
Amputated creative tongue
You sing on and on and
I can tell you why
I'm bringing you down,
Calling you out,
Taking your shield
It's easier now
Years have been kind
Distance between
Has given hind sight
I jumped a train
Your tragedy so easy to read,
Is bitter envy
They're reaping all the lowly benefits
You missed the train they stole
And you've never...
I'm burning you down,
Calling you out,
Taking your shield
It's easier now
Years have been kind
Distance between has given hind sight
I'm on a train
06 Hurry Up and Wait (00:34)
It's......time to get up and stress out
We're driving to another town
We're never gonna make sound check
So I can't even take a shit
No showers, shaving or coffee
I can't fuckin' brush my teeth
"C'mon we're already late man, let's go"
Hurr up and wait
Wait
Hurry up and wait
07 Everything Turns Grey (01:49)
Things don't seem to be as easy as they used to be
It's getting harder everyday to think
Of better things to say
About what's going on around you
And what's happening inside you
When it's time to change you won't know how
It won't matter here from now
No matter what you think or do or say
Everything turns grey
This is it, the darkest hour
Isn't it depressing how our
Minds create an atmosphere
That won't happen here unless we make some new demands
To grasp the future in our hands
You know I wish I could but it's too late
For senseless minds that love to hate
No matter what they think or do or say
Everything turns grey
08 Love Story (02:20)
Maybe it's not funny but it's true
No one here's surprised but you
Embellish it, the truth is you're a slave
Addicted to it's escalating
And your love story's bad
Drama makes you livid
in a nervous always laugh
I'm fresh out of advice
And sick of standing in this harms way
Interstate, in debate, an impasse
Driving out of hope and gas
Arriving at the same mute conclusion
This destination failure
This is going, going
Nowhere slow
Drama is exhausting and I'd rather be alone
I want better friends
I'm sick of getting into harms way
And so are they
Sick of being around something
That's destined to fail
And the sum of it's parts cannot see
They make me hate life, hate friends,
Hate being there
I know, that it's not funny but it's true
No one gives a shit but you
Maybe I'll just swallow all these thoughts
Maybe someday you'll stop
09 Messengers (01:57)
Late, I can stay up late
In and out of bed
Cleaning up the mess
Trying to be honest
'cause I know I am on it
In this, the last time I
speak of it
the loyalties that have been broken
Mine isn't dead
One thing is true
Nothing is sacred
When everyone's talking
and nobody's listening
When we confide in all
those friends
they're just messengers
One thing is true
You throw the matters into
blue skies
turning to grey,
falling out every day
One thing that's free
I confide in you with the truth
Late, I can stay up late
In and out of bed
Cleaning up the mess
inside my head
11 May 16 (02:57)
No more waiting on them
as you rise inside new rooms
It's official you've gone
you can live for no one else
Man the guilt must be huge
As there's no gain in failure you succeed at being mine
Yeah, old friend, see you there I will be proud from afar
I can paint a picture in a moment of memories and there aren't many left
I am extradited, uninvited
It's just another saturday
Take a step to freedom
You and her against this cruel world
Take a breath of shelter and exhale
Trust and allegiance
Liberate yourself from hell
It's just another saturday
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