January Jams ‘25
Let me be the last to say Happy New Year to you all. If you’re still saying it to people in February it means they didn’t mean enough to you to say it when the year was actually new, so you should just refrain and work on your relationship so that you’re relevant in each other’s lives come next January. Do you know what was great about this January? music was released during it. Though I love music I’m not particularly well-versed in describing what makes the technical compositions of songs good. To circumvent having to do that I will only be talking about what I liked about them lyrically and how they made me feel. Additionally, to provide a more clear assessment of the albums’ quality I will be employing a method used by draft scouts and pundits: a player comparison. Only the difference is, that I will not be comparing this month’s releases to other past albums, but to another of the great loves of my life, jam. This month I have three albums to talk about but in future months the amount may vary. Let’s get started.
Who’s ready to GAG? “Tragedy of The Commons” by Great American Ghost. There is a lot more singing on this album than in their earlier work which was more pure hardcore, but they use clean vocals effectively and it’s a great evolution of their sound. The first half of the album is very good melodic hardcore/metalcore whatever you want to call it with some great moments of heaviness mixed in with slower melodic sections. The album became great in my opinion starting with “Genocide” a song that sounds and is paced like no other on the album, it is a relentless march that has you stomping all over the place. Then for the last three songs of the album, they just decide to go as hard as they can without just being downright irresponsible. My favorite of these songs is “Chapel Paralysis” which does the best job of incorporating a chorus that I wouldn’t necessarily call soaring (the highest mark that a chorus can achieve) but gets a real nice sway going and crushing riffs with a beautiful buildup and breakdown. “Reality//Relapse” asks if you want some heavy shit and does not wait for a response, this ain’t what you ordered? well then complain to the chef, I bet you won’t. “God Is A Loaded Gun” is a great final song to the album continuing the theme of the powerful manipulating and destroying common people and others who are less fortunate. Once the album is finished, you need to take a moment to collect yourself and reflect on the relentlessness of the last three songs in particular but also the album as a whole
Jam Comp: Raspberry chipotle jam, gives you the spice and the heat you need mixed with a sweetness that enhances it creating a treat for the palate.
“The Hart” by Grayscale is by no means a perfect album but goddamn is it a lot of fun, heartfelt and sweet in places, and catchier than the flu. I first listened to this album passively, I just threw it on because I wanted something easy to listen to as background noise and it was good but I didn’t think much of it initially. “Kept Me Alive” is the first proper song on the album and it is a great statement of intent, easy to move to and that chorus is a work of pop punk art. Halfway through the chorus, there is a pause for two beats and it comes back with the next three lines in a different cadence that just makes me happy to sing along to. The middle portion of the album is inconsistent with no bad songs necessarily but a couple that aren’t particularly memorable. The album does finish strong however, I recommend “Some Kind Of Magic” and “Dance With Your Ghost” if you want to dance around your kitchen or bop along in your car. “Don’t Leave Me In The Dark” and “Mum II” are great if you're looking for a good cry with two choruses that are criminally sing-alongable. Yes, there were a couple of moments where I was simultaneously dancing and welling up thinking about my mother.
Jam Comp: Strawberry Jam, very sweet and puts you in a good mood but occasionally one of those little seeds will get stuck in your teeth and make you want to cry.
So Stick To Your Guns simply refuses to make an album that doesn’t have some of the best calls to action and meditations on what it means to be a human being I’ve ever fucking heard. “Keep Planting Flowers” came out at the perfect time, two days after the inauguration when the consequences really began sinking in. Stick To Your Guns gave us everything we need with this album. Defiance, understanding, hope, power. The album has no lowlights even though “Eats Me Up” is safely the weakest song in my opinion, so pointing out the highlights is difficult but I will give my top 3 recommendations from the album. “More Than A Witness” is the best call to action on the album and one of the best they’ve ever done. “Invisible Rain” does an amazing job of describing mental struggles and the need to fight back against adversity. Finally, “Keep Planting Flowers” is actually too great for me to describe, I am not worthy. They did something interesting at the end of the album with the last two songs having features. “Who Needs Who” is a great union anthem featuring Scott Vogel of Terror and “H84U” which is pure hardcore, a great end to the album, and features awesomely aggressive screams from Connie Sgarbossa who, at the time of writing, appears to be formerly of SeeYouSpaceCowboy. By doing this, STYG not only shows reverence for the legends of hardcore but also supports the present and future of the community. It also reminds us that we are not alone in our efforts and encourages us to find comfort and empowerment through our own communities.
Jam Comp: Grape Jam. The best jam, I am not accepting debate requests at this time.
