Album Review : "Home", by Off With Their Heads

First entry.  Let’s cut the crap and get on with it, ready or not, here comes… :

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS – “HOME”  (release march 12^th 2013) – Epitaph records.

First and foremost, I would like to thank www.Rock-Metal-Punk.org, Kenny Leys en David Marote, for getting me started at my very first (attempt to) review of a new album.  As you will see, it turned out to be a bit more than just a review…

I wouldn’t call myself a die-hard OWTH-fan, but when they got added to the Kloemprock bill last year, I purchased their entire backcatalogue, and listened to it on several occasions  But for some more background info I turned to the WWW, wikipedia, earlier interviews and reviews of older releases.

The band doesn’t seem to consist of a single, fix line-up.  As stated by all-time member Ryan Young (vocals-guitar), there are two or three people who will “always” be a member of OWTH, and then there’s a pool of other musicians, completeing the line-up whenever it suits them or te band, be it for concerts or recording sessions.  For instance, according to their band page on Epitaph’s website (they should know, right?), the band consists of Ryan Youg, Justin Francis and Robbie Smartwood.  In a recent interview (www.citypages.com), Justin Francis isn’t even mentioned, but then there are the names of Ryan Fischer and John Polydoros…  You get the idea.  Ryan Young himself tends to play guitar when performing live, but rarely when recording.

After one EP, one album, stacks of 7”s, and sort of a mish-mash of demo’s, B-sides, split-outtakes, the band signed with Epitaph a couple of years ago, after being asked by record company icon Brett Gurewitz himself.  There they released “In Desolation” in 2010, which was at that time a big step ahead as a band, certainly in comparison to their earlier releases who had a more DIY-feel to them.  This made me very curious for their next album, and second release under Epitaph.  Even more so because Brett Gurewitz, on several occasions, named OWTH as his favorite band of the moment…

Enough of the history!  Let’s check that new album, “HOME”.  Is it possible the title itself refers to how they feel under Epitaph’s wings ?  Well I guess they feel at home there, certainly when you hear the new songs!  Nevertheless, it was quite a scare when I read the following post on OWTH’s FB-page july 9^th 2012 : “…been in the studio working on our new record for the last week … Starting to sound pretty cool.  Think Nickelback meets Dance Hall Crashers.  Not kidding”.  Thankfully, Ryan (I suppose) does have a tendency to be a wee bit provocative, only to get freaked-out replies by his audience.  Always a joy to read.

Right then, I got my hands on the new songs (well, 11 of the 12 that will feature on the album) through RMP, thanks again, and I superficially listened to them twice, in my car.  First impressions then were, OK, good stuff, but I couldn’t help feeling like I was listening to “In Desolation” part II.  But then, then I really sat down with them (headphones and all), and really focused and listened a few times, and that’s when it dawned to me that a whole lot of new and great stuff was going on here.  To make sure I also took the time to listen to “In Desolation” itself again (still a kick-ass record!), and all my doubts were gone.  “Home” is an emotional sledgehammer, a slap in your face (I swear I wrote down that line before the video to “Start Walking” got released…!).  Where “In Desolation” was a big step ahead, we’re now talking giant leaps…

Starting with track one, it’s clear that Ryan Young has been looking for, and exploring the boundaries of his vocal capacities, and the way he uses them.  Where on former releases almost everything is sung in a ‘sanding paper’-voice, there is plenty of variation now, in highs and lows, and we are treated to several bits and almost entire songs in a ‘clear’ voice, without his typical hoarseness.  Be sure to check out the “love” in Start Walking, the “I’ve never felt worse in my whole life” in Nightlife (single and video), and almost all of Don’t Make Me Go.

Sadly enough, I can’t go into technical details as far as the music itself goes.  I am no musician myself, can’t play a single note, and you most definitely don’t want to hear me sing.  But I do hear that on a musical level too, there is a lot more diversity on this record.  Don’t get me wrong, anyone who is more or less familiar with OWTH will recognize them at some point in every song, but there is so much more.  De bass-line carrying Don’t Make Me Go, for example, instantly sent shivers down my spine.  I recall the same experience when I first heard Silversun Pickups’ song “Lazy Eye”.  Here and there, in the right places, different versions of the ‘whoa-whoa’ can be heard, there are several well-chosen changes in pace, a couple of ‘quieter’ bits, backing vocals.  Different structures in songs and melodies are used compared to earlier stuff, and so on and so on.  In general, my impression is that someone did some long and hard thinking about this album, the songs, and the running order of the tracks.  And it pays off.  More commercial ??  No f*cking way !!  Better ??  Hell yes !!  Kudos for that, especially in these digital times of i-pods, spotify’s en piracy, where nearly everyone switches on ‘shuffle’, and rarely sits down to enjoy an entire album.  I don’t belong to those ‘newbies’ (I want my CD’s physical, I want to hold the booklet, browse through the ‘thank-you’ lists!), but I’m afraid that I’m part of an endangered species.

As far as lyrics go, I can analyse and form an opinion.  The way Ryan describes his feelings, I think is of a beauty beyond compare, and I’d love to add some examples.

Let’s start with the beginning.  You put the record on, press ‘play’, and this is what you hear :

“There are no words to describe, the awful feeling I have inside, so I shut down.”

“Not the same as it was last time, it’s so much worse, it’s something that drives me out of my mind.”

“It’s a long way back to be anything that anyone could love.”

By now we are only 24 seconds into this album and already the tone is set.  Ryan did mention that he gets a lot of questions about the darkness and gloom in his lyrics, mostly followed by questioning his psychological health.  He said every song does in a way represent a day or a certain period in his life, but also that he seems to have the ability to wear his heart on his sleeve and always, yet not intentionally, blow those experiences out of proportion when writing songs about them.  Good for him…I suppose…  And we should be pleased that there was plenty of inspiration while writing this album, because take it from me, you are in for a treat!

The next track “Shirts”, doesn’t offer much more fun :

“My only retreat is falling asleep, but I lie awake every night of the week.”

“And think about how much worse it’s become.”

Either he is a good actor, or else the despair you hear in this last line is true.  Terrifying.

Then there’s “Nightlife”, the first video and single that already made me hope for the best.  It careens through your speakers like a train, while staying deliciously melodic, it has gorgeous backing’s, and once more a look into Ryan’s tormented soul.

With “Focus On Your Own Family”, we see a different approach.  This song is one of my favorites, and could be a message to the listeners, a motivational speech.  Or maybe even a therapeutical exercise for Ryan himself, forcing him to try something more positive and constructive.  A lovely piece of lyric :

“Fuck ‘em all, don’t ever listen, don’t ever comply.”

“Never be scared, never be frightened to hold your head high.”

“Might seem like it’s all uphill and you may be right.”

“But at the top of this hill everything’s lit with a new light.”

Next up : "Altar Boy".  Maybe Ryan used to be one?  His aversion towards religion and belief in all its appearances has been mentioned on several occasions, and he takes another swing at it in this song.  After four tracks inviting us to a nice bit of moshing, this is a song with not so typical OWTH-rhythms and melodies, also in the singing department.  And when I say aversion, this song might just contain the answer as to why he feels that way…

“…There’s only one time around, and I choose”

“not to blindly follow the same people that abuse.”

“And I’ve seen it firsthand.  They tried to cover it up, I was confused.”

I’ll leave you all to be the judge of that, maybe we’ll get an answer in some future interview he will surely give around the release of this album.

Track number 6.  Don’t Make Me Go.  A gem.  Nothing more, nothing less than an absolute masterpiece.  Discover this song!  Listen to it on endless repeat!  This song deserves it…

If Johnny Cash would still be among us, and heard this song…  Rick Rubin’s phone would already be ringing, asking for a final episode of the “American Recordings”, only to cover this song.  I'd buy it...

“Janie” is a song that opened “All Things Move Toward Their End”, the mish-mash record of older stuff.  The great thing about that album were Ryan’s liner notes to every song, an absolute treasure!  I can’t blame him for wanting to re-release this song, because the quality of that first recording kinda sucks.  Janie deserved better…

“Seek Advice Elsewhere” is once more a killer song, that runs on a great pace, and has a lovely melody to it, inviting Ryan to yet another fantastic piece of song-writing :

“…and there’s no hope for anything getting any better than this.”

“You hit the bottom, you think that’s all.”

“But the bottom opens up and you continue to fall.”

“And everywhere you turn to yell for help it goes unheard.”

Again, pink hearts and roses are nowhere near.  The thorns however…

In a 2009 interview, Ryan stated that he was at that time in a seven-months relationship with a girl he got to know through the band.  She was an OWTH-fan.  Without knowing for sure, my guess is that relationship has since ended, or at least there must have been a few rough patches, inspiring Ryan to write “Stolen Away”.  Why ?  Because :

“…the road that brought us together has taken me away from you…”
Or :

“…no plans for children, no plans for growing old…”
What do you think ?

Also the general tone and feel to this song, was clearly created to touch a sensitive subject.  Vulnerable use of his voice, no drums at all (!).  The rhythm is dictated by a tambourine, and a maraca, if I’m not mistaken.  Furthermore a dark pool of sound, coming from a bass and a guitar, heavily distorted.  In a way, this song was kind of a little break, before the final track is unleashed upon us, everything wide open.

To summarize : “Home” happened to me like some kind of freaky accident.  You get hit, you go down, it’s all black for a couple of seconds.  While you’re trying to get up, you find yourself on a railroad, not knowing how you got there, and you look up.  Right at that moment that freight-train runs over you at full speed…

Who, like me, takes the time to fully soak up this record will 1) not regret it, and 2) find it hard to put something else in the CD-, MP3- or whatever-player.

My favorite tracks ?  “Nightlife”, “Focus On Your Own Family” and “Don’t Make Me Go” to me are really songs that everybody should hear, and at the same time, there is not a single track on this album that I have skipped, not even once, while listening to it for at least 20 times.  ‘nuff said…

I started this review, stating that I was not a die-hard OWTH-fan.  That has definitely changed over the last few weeks.

That leaves us with one last, though important, question : when will they come and play these tunes to us, Belgian heartfelt-punk-rock-aficionado's...?  Soon I hope.