Say Anything....

thelitguy · 10-28-2007, 12:31 AM

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I never meant to imply they were related.

K.

Jeffrey · 11-11-2007, 11:54 AM

Friday night I went to see Say Anything in Houston. The only other act on the bill I knew about was Hellogoodbye, who were enjoyable, but don't translate well to a small standing-room only auditorium, especially when they close with three slow songs. I wish I had been sitting down and drinking tea as I enjoyed them, especially because no one was dancing to their dance-pop.

Anyway, the other two acts were a WONDERFUL surprise and a dreadful one. Out of nowhere, POLYSICS. Then, Young Love. Young Love is an act of whom I've only heard bits and pieces. Great drummer, terrible band.

Say Anything, anyway, put on a great show. Some of the songs that come out weak and dull on the album (such as "People like You Are Why People Like Me Exist") came out much stronger. Off the new album, they only did the songs that have been posted and promoted on MySpace and Purevolume, which is good because half of those songs are ones I can stomach. Nothing can make "Baby Girl, I'm a Blur" a good song.

I have hope that their next album will be a return to form, but even stronger live versions can't save dull, uninspired lyrics and boring guitar work.

I was also fairly nauseous at the environment. The last time I saw them was years ago (Sean was there), at a 6 pm show at the inside small stage of Emo's. We stood dead center, and the crowd were basically 18 to 25 year old's who had heard the album. We sang along, all that, but it wasn't an hour of people trying to touch Max Bemis.

Cut to Friday night, where people were more interested in getting noticed by Bemis than getting into the music. I ended up in dead center, front, because for the twenty minutes leading up to Say Anything's appearance, folks were just pushing non-stop from the back. Ridiculous.

I understand the roots of hero worship, but I don't know if I can stomach watching it anymore. I have fears that the Coheed concert I'll be attending will be the same thing, just with more eyeliner and Nightmare before Christmas shirts on the 16-year-old girls in attendance.

I'm still thoroughly baffled at this album. I can understand why Less Than Jake started releasing poor, poor albums. They're 30-year-olds, trying to feed their families, disconnected from anyone but rear-kissers, and are trying to hit the radio in their waning years. But Say Anything? Bemis was at the top of his game, had three years to craft this, had guest stars leaping over themselves to appear, and he screwed it up.

I'm keeping the faith that the next album will be strong, but Friday night sealed it. The lyrics went from things like "I managed to escape the good gendarme" to "Talking to a fan who likes my band." The music went from time signature shifts and loud/soft dynamics to feeding into the current trend of tossing in the blips and bleeps and repetitive snare samples in order to channel dance music.

**Skeeter** · 11-13-2007, 01:16 PM

I am very disappointed in the album. The second disc is ridiculously better than the first, but it's still a disappointment. I will likely do a track-by-track review at some point and burn a single disc version to see if I like it better.

It feels like Max was incredibly lazy with this album and tried to cover it up by making it a double album with an overly pretentious title. I'm having a lot of trouble finding lyrics that I honestly love on this album. There are a couple songs that I enjoy, but I am still astounded at the utter laziness of the lyrics and music. Cliches are everywhere.

conceived in fire · 11-13-2007, 03:04 PM

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Originally Posted by Skeeter

There are a couple songs that I enjoy, but I am still astounded at the utter laziness of the lyrics and music.

and somehow they weren't lazy before...

**Sean** · 11-13-2007, 03:08 PM

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Originally Posted by conceived in fire

and somehow they weren't lazy before...

Are we supposed to take this comment seriously? It's one thing to say you don't like a band. It's another to arbitrarily accuse them of having lazy lyrics.

Mattlock · 11-13-2007, 03:40 PM

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Originally Posted by conceived in fire

and somehow they weren't lazy before...

No. Two words:

Admit It.

conceived in fire · 11-13-2007, 04:45 PM

Admit what? they're still the most overrated band in music today? and undeserving of being hyped up as the savior(s) of pop punk?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean

Are we supposed to take this comment seriously? It's one thing to say you don't like a band. It's another to arbitrarily accuse them of having lazy lyrics.

I was referring more to the music.

**Sean** · 11-13-2007, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conceived in fire

Admit what? they're still the most overrated band in music today? and undeserving of being hyped up as the savior(s) of pop punk?

I will repeat myself. You heard "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too" and thought pop punk?

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I was referring more to the music.

Well you quoted a sentence about lyrics.

Of course, I'm not really sure how they're music is lazy either. You keep calling them a pop-punk band, but they certainly don't sound like anything I call pop-punk. So I'm not really sure what you think is lazy about their writing. Specifically what was lazy about their songwriting on their first CD?

I really don't understand your dislike of the band. I really do understand that not everyone is going to like the same things, but you more than dislike them. You specifically have it out for Say Anything. Do you think that maybe you're just overreacting to the hype?

Kenny C. · 11-13-2007, 04:59 PM

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Admit what? they're still the most overrated band in music today? and undeserving of being hyped up as the savior(s) of pop punk?

"Admit It" is the last song on ...Is A Real Boy.

conceived in fire · 11-13-2007, 05:22 PM

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Originally Posted by Sean

I will repeat myself. You heard "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too" and thought pop punk?

I heard "Alive With the Glory of Love" (and 7 other songs I don't remember the names to), and the music certainly (at least) leans towards pop punk. The vocals fit perfectly in the genre. And if every user on Sputnikmusic.com agrees with me as I said....(no, it's not a "stupid music magazine")
I've said all I have to. No more "bothering" anyone.

**Sean** · 11-13-2007, 06:00 PM

On a different note...

I've been listening to "In Defense of the Genre" for the past 3 weeks trying to figure out exactly what I don't like about it. As others have pointed out, the lyrics are unusually bad. It's as if when Max became a rock star he started to think he had to always cuss and sing about sex and drugs, but since his fans think he's intellectual and poignant he decided to also sing about Jesus, the Bible and Allah. I also got the impression that Bemis read one of those books that tells you that the first lyrics of your song has to really stick to catch peoples attention. So you get songs starting off with tacky lyrics such as "I f***ed someone with words" or "I was watching Demolition Man." Anyway, I'm not really much of a lyrics critic. These things just stuck out as me as tacky, and my wife won't let me listen to half of the album because of the cussing or crudeness.

Onto the music, what attracted me to Say Anything initially was that I really liked the first four songs I heard by them (Everyman Has a Molly, Woe, Belt, Alive With the Glory of Love). The songs stood out as good songs. I then downloaded all of their indie albums off of soundclick. They were more hit and miss, but they too had a number of really good standout songs. Then I heard "...Is a Real Boy" and there was probably 5 more songs which I thought really stood out. There are only two songs which didn't really interest me, but even those two songs had sections which I thought were really good.

I got a bit worried when "...Was a Real Boy" came out because only "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too" was the only song which stuck out to me, and six of the songs didn't interest me at all.

When I first listened to "In Defense of the Genre" none of the songs really stuck out to me. There are some parts of songs which I really liked and a number of songs I really wanted to like, but none of the songs were really solid. On repeat listens several songs grew on and I started to appreciate parts of songs more, but at the same that made me more frustrated with the album. My problem isn't so much that there are filler tracks (though there are some), but rather that most tracks have filler parts. With most every track I like something in the song: a guitar riff, a verse, a chorus melody, a bridge, the production, a progression. There were several songs which started off with a riff I liked. Then the verses were ok, the chorus was a bit bland, and then the bridge seemed out of place or forced. Or the verses were fairly boring, but the chorus really stuck out but the lyrics were overly tacky. Honestly, I don't think I could pick 5 songs on the CD to make a solid EP. However, I do think the album could be cannibalized into a pretty solid album....if he re-wrote the lyrics.

On a positive note, I thought parts of the album were produced well, and some of the guest vocals added a neat dimension to the songs. Of course, some of the guest vocalists seemed entirely tacked on.

**Sean** · 11-13-2007, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conceived in fire

I heard "Alive With the Glory of Love" (and 7 other songs I don't remember the names to), and the music certainly (at least) leans towards pop punk.

I just don't hear it. When I think pop-punk I think Green Day and New Found Glory, and I certainly don't think Say Anything is in that ballpark. Which pop-punk bands do you think they sound like?

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The vocals fit perfectly in the genre.

Everything you say confuses me more and more. I would cite his vocals as an example of how they DON'T sound like pop-punk. Which pop-punk vocalists does he sound like?

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And if every user on Sputnikmusic.com agrees with me as I said....(no, it's not a "stupid music magazine")

I seriously doubt every user does think they're "pop-punk." Further, Say Anything does have pop-punk roots, but they deliberately moved away the cliches of the genre when they got signed. So sputnikmusic could list pop-punk as one of their genres because they WERE a pop-punk band, not necessarily because they ARE a pop-punk band.

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I've said all I have to. No more "bothering" anyone.

Since I'm on these message boards to discuss things, discussing a band I like certainly isn't bothering me.

**Skeeter** · 11-13-2007, 06:59 PM

The new album feels a lot more like pop-punk to me...which is very sad.

Mattlock · 11-13-2007, 08:29 PM

Listen to the song "Belt." Tell me what pop-punk band has guitar like that. Name a pop-punk that structures their songs like that. What's lazy about that? It doesn't seem like they just wrote those songs during while strumming during a soundcheck or watching South Park. It seems like they came up with those riffs as a band, and sat down together and constructed the rest of the song.

Kenny C. · 11-13-2007, 10:47 PM

I haven't heard too much of the new album yet, although I like what I've heard, but I finally got around to picking up ...Is A Real Boy. Effing A, I waited way, way too long to buy this album. I had various Say Anything songs stuck in my head for the whole day today, seriously. Based on the videos I've seen, too, Max is pretty much the perfect example of a great frontman.