By So Brick, Eh?
I haven’t been this excited about an album in this genre for far too long. Good Hangs’ Greatest Hangs is exactly what every post-emo Millennial needs to feel good about the future of the genre. As my cousin described it, Good Hangs is a time machine: destination—late 2000s emo/punk pop. It’s a solid album front to back, but here’s some highlights, interested listener.
The opening track, “I Hate You (For Making Me Hate You)” is a masterclass in drawing in anybody who is lyrically focused. The ambiguous title and opening lyrics lead you down the path of “oh, another song about broken hearts, sad boy music,” but no. What becomes clear about halfway in is that this is a song about someone discovering that a dear friend is an unapologetic sexual assailant. “Let’s pour one out for the girl back home who doesn’t want to be in a room alone with you....” As a man who had a close friend exposed as a serial sexual assailant, this song hits so many emotional complexities that one deals with when learning this about a person. For one, most importantly, the sorrow upon discovering that so many women have been affected by this person. Then there’s the reimagining of this person you thought you knew and the nagging fear that you were unknowingly complicit. Incredible opening track.
Track two, “I Only Do Pushups When I’m Drunk (Drinking Lonely),” is the most played/streamed on various platforms, but in my opinion one of the weaker tracks. Musically it’s very strong. Melodic. A steady chanting-style chorus that lends itself to a more guitar-driven Jimmy Eat World feeling. I can see why people like it, but the album offers so much more.
“Local scene,” track three, is a nostalgia-filled song about the heady days of the band’s formation. Strong storytelling, and it captures the lyricist’s own grappling with rising popularity as well as the growing tensions within the band. It is a classic theme for a band to work through musically. The echo backtrack and slowed down lyrics remind me of Motion City Soundtrack, but it’s more scream-y.
Skipping down to track five, “Intoxicated,” is a great anthem song. Thumping bass line, tight guitar riffs, and crashing drums are all there. Lyrically, it’s capturing the drunken summers of post-high school early college life when “coming home” meant reuniting with friends more than family. It’s most reminiscent of a Blink-182 song from the Enema of The State era.
Coming fast on the heels of the previous track is “Outlaws.” It’s my personal favorite. The references are notably Gen Z, which does a nice job of reminding you that it’s a more recent work of musicianship (e.g., Whistlepig Whiskey came out in 2007 and didn’t become popular until a bit later). Some inside jokes make their way into the lyrics (drugs in a water bottle?). Also, drinking from water bottles is tirelessly late 2010s. Remember when we just had water fountains? When did everyone get so thirsty? Anyways, the rebelliousness of the track gives me hope that Gen Z aren’t all bootlickers.
Track eight, “I Watched All My Friends Fade Out,” is another trending song on the streaming platforms. The guitar breakdowns and lyrics noticeably shift the album in a darker direction. Nostalgia gives way to a requiem for the innocence of youth. What used to be rebellious youthful energy reveals itself to be a trap for those unable to grow up and move on in life. While many of us make it out of the deep alienation of suburban life and restricting conservative decorum of polite public schools, that is not true for all. For others, it is a labyrinthine complex of comfort and pain.
Track nine, “Grudge,” builds on the insights of track eight by personalizing addiction in a way that feels all too familiar for myself and others like me who come from the opioid-riddled Rust Belt. Addiction hovered over all of us. There was always fear that this drug would be the one that got us. I can smoke one cigarette, but ten, a hundred? Nobody goes straight to heroin. The logic of “gateway drugs,” though somewhat confusing, made sense at face value. How else did Jimmy get hooked on smack? To hear similar pains expressed through the frame of a “grudge” is powerful. We can intellectualize addiction, try to think of it as a “disease,” but that doesn’t make it any easier. For those of us who dabbled, at some level, we are aware of the fact that we were only some number of hits away from a completely different life story. Does that mean we should begrudge those among us who became addicted? No, but we do.
Track fourteen, “One Foot Wide,” comes back to the nostalgia of those early band days, but with less reverie. The music here feels much “bigger.” Not as big as something like 30 Seconds to Mars or Coheed and Cambria, but you can feel the influence. You can feel the band reaching for a larger sound. I think this is one of the few tracks where the lyrics hold the band back. Musically, it’s the most polished track, but by now the lyrics feel a bit trite.
Track fifteen, “Best Friends,” brings it right back though with an acoustic guitar and grounded lyrics. It reminds me of the MTV Unplugged days when you could see a band stripped down and forced to perform in a setting where they couldn’t hide behind distortion. Some of those performances exposed artists for being weak performers, other Unplugged albums generated some of a band’s best tracks (Nirvana’s cover of Bowie anyone?). And in this one, they fucking deliver.
The final track, “When the World Ends,” ends the album on a promising note. It feels to me like a strong trilogy of ending tunes. There’s a fun reference to Dashboard Confessional, an obvious nod to the band’s influences. It’s upbeat, fun, taking on the dread of the tomorrow with the energy of youthful optimism. It makes even my cold dead heart optimistic, not just for the future of the band and the genre, but perhaps even us.
All in all, I highly recommend Greatest Hangs. It is too often that bands rely on the strength of a single or two. This is a situation where the band has put out a really solid album, and it’s clear that tracks are building on each other. There’s intention to how it is laid out. Some themes are tried-and-true, others are new avenues of exploring growing pains. It’s the perfect album for someone who misses music before the hipster revolution and growing influence of EDM in indie rock spaces. Neo-emo is what I’d call it, and I’m ready for more.
