The boys from AFI can blame themselves for an underwhelming Crash Love

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      AFI
      Crash Love (Interscope)

      If the monochromatic Crash Love seems more than a little underwhelming, the boys of AFI can pretty much blame themselves. Or, more accurately, blame themselves for giving the world the melodramatic landmark that was Sing the Sorrow.

      Had the band sometimes known as A Fire Inside not raised the bar impossibly high with that 2003 breakthrough, Crash Love wouldn’t seem half the let-down it does. After all, the playing is accomplished enough for the most advanced of Guitar Hero disciples, the songs barbed with some truly killer hooks, and the vibe underground enough for the emover crowd but accessible enough for rock-radio listeners.

      What’s missing is the sense of epic grandeur that, six years ago, made AFI look like it was going to be the most important band of the early 21st century. Once you’ve dragged disaffected Gregorian monks, dark-mass orchestras, and black-robed choirs to the midnight-garden party, a good old-fashioned guitar-rock album comes off as a tad anticlimatic. AFI is capable of more than songs that tend to sound like they belong on Now That’s What I Call Emo 2009!. The Ukiah, California–based group doesn’t show that here.

      It’s not all completely uninspiring. Singer Davey Havok and company start out strong, with the kick-off track “Torch Song” flooded with haunted-castle organs and tastefully restrained metal-master riffing. The percussion-powered “Too Shy to Scream” sounds like a 1950s pep rally at Death Valley High, and the awesomely titled “Veronica Sawyer Smokes” serves up a lethal cocktail of postpunk gloom and pure-pop fizz. On the unsung-genius front, guitarist Jade Puget again proves himself one of the most underrated axemen in rock ’n’ roll, whether he’s kicking it vintage SoCal style on “Sacrilege”, or unleashing his inner Tom Morello on “Medicate”.

      But despite all this, by the halfway mark of Crash Love, all the songs start to blend together, almost indistinguishable from one another. There’s an easy explanation for that. Abandoning the funereal majesty of Sing the Sorrow and the electronics-strafed bombast of its follow-up Decemberunderground, this is basically a standard guitars-bass-and-drums record. As we all know, unless your name is Refused or Rage Against the Machine, making something unique with that set-up is one of pop music’s most impossible tasks.

      It doesn’t help that Havok—never known for his vocal range—opts entirely for his now-familiar, weirdly strained delivery on every song. If you want old-school screaming, you’re going to have to haul out 2000’s The Art of Drowning, because his hyper-sensitive inner emo-(girly)man has finally killed off the black-hearted hardcore fan within. Indeed, from the album title to the cover art (a twisted-chrome heart) to the lyrics (“I’d tear out my eyes for you, my dear”), Crash Love seems like a window into one lovelorn goth’s secret diary.

      At least AFI finishes off this slickly recorded disappointment on an, um, interesting note. Thanks largely to its massive ’70s-issue vocal harmonies, the final track, “It Was Mine” ends up sounding like Kansas given a full makeover by the Vampiras who man the Urban Decay cosmetics counter. For four minutes and 34 seconds, you’re guaranteed to forget Sing the Sorrow ever existed. If only the rest of Crash Love was as memorable.

      Download This: “Too Shy to Scream”

      Comments

      4 Comments

      helenXe

      Oct 9, 2009 at 1:05pm

      thank you, dear god, thank you, mark, whoever you are, for this brave review. it just seems from what i've been reading that no one else had the guts to step forward and say that this afi effort was, minus a few highlights, bland and generic. and for fans who are used to davey's raw emotion in past efforts, these tracks each come off as 12 tiny melodramatic movies.

      Abby

      Oct 10, 2009 at 4:56pm

      AGREED!!

      FUck your self kentucky

      Oct 11, 2009 at 5:31pm

      emo shit can kiss my ass all thier songs still sound as punk as ever you haters

      Nikki

      Apr 18, 2010 at 2:44pm

      I do think SING THE SORROW is one of the best albums EVER, but December Underground grew on me and now I LOVE it.. and this one is doing the same sort of thing. Also, I do have to say that I LOVE his little "ooohhh" intro to all the songs. He's always done that and it's one of the little quirks about him that I really like!!!