May 29, 2010: Say Anything

Artist: Say Anything
Album: ... Is A Real Boy
Year: 2006

Another in a row of concept albums that aren't actually about anything, the masterpiece of Max Bemis is a work of bitter, sly and ferocious social commentary. On some of the album, he shows aggravation; other times, he is sour and self-deprecating. But at every moment, you can count on him being absolutely relentless. The album begins with a joke at the expense of Max's social anxiety, but as soon as the message pops through: "and the record begins with a song of rebellion", suddenly he's coming at you with a battering ram of sing-along choruses, scathing one-liners and a yell for recognition. "Woe" contains the brilliant exchange of "And this girl who I met / whose pride makes her hard to forget / she took pity on me / horizontally / but most likely because of my band". The roller coaster continues with the greatest love song ever written about the Holocaust, "Alive With The Glory Of Love", biting "Yellow Cat / Red Cat", and "The Futile", which opens with Bemis yelping "shit / nothing makes sense / so I won't think about it" with such tongue-in-cheek apathy you can't help but agree with him. "An Orgy Of Critics" in a stand-out, as well as "Every Man Has A Molly" (which probably has the one greatest, most smirk-inducing opening verses to any song, ever). This is one of the few albums that manages to follow through on a strong start, and very stripped and sincere (but still socially conscious) "I Want To Know Your Plans" leads into "Admit It!", the album's ultimate track and probably the song I'll associate with Say Anything for the rest of my life. I'll post it as the "listen to" track for this album, so try to keep up as Max dissects a little bit of everyone's life, but some more than others. Highly reccomended.

Hear it for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2OqgkAtCD0