Rhode Island pop punk quartet Makeout release their debut full length album titled ‘The Good Life’ through Rise Records. We take an in-depth look at the tracks on offer and what to expect when the album drops on September 29th.
CHILDISH – these lyrics are adulting speak or even recognizing that whatever he’s going through and some of these are what he deems childish or childlike. It’s a playful tune seeded with the pangs of getting older and walking into a reckoning; yours or someone else’s.
CRAZY – nice cadence to a bouncy track that depicts a ton of 20-something relationship issues with any and everything. What is refreshing about CRAZY is all the elements that make up his depiction of this gal is all completely accurate #trustme. The guitars vacillate between balls out nuts and genius.
LISA – the pure guitar tones remind me of a time where every going on in my world was paramount and full of these highly charged scenes and scenarios. What is fun about this record particularly this song LISA is it is real identifiable fun even if you’re old AF or past the 20-something years.
RIDE IT OUT – this song slows it down for the whole band and I’m sure live they need some type of ballad – sheesh! Where do they get all of the energy? Lofty choruses and a short bridge that does exactly that – connects the meat with the potatoes! What a very pretty melody that is supercharged with EMO fusion at it’s finest; even for a slower number.
OPEN MINDED – what a kick ass anthem! We all need to heed this advice found within the lyrics. Someone should snatch this fucker up for a new reality show about random strangers being judgemental dicks. Hmmm…on second thought better hold that idea to the table. ( © Cherri Bird, 2017 intellectual property rules and conditions apply the rules and regulations for details.)
YOU CAN’T BLAME ME – I did the way the song changes up in the content. It is really cool even as they still use the same guitar tones. This sound is and will always be reminiscent of James Brogan of Samiam and his guitar tone that echoed off Bob Wills Dance Hall walls in Tulsa back in 1997. I love a good sound in music, that when heard can recall even those memories that are farthest back.
CLOCKWORK – what I totally love about this band is the insertion of elements like choirs and half steps and drops of big riffs, coupled with the glory that is Emo. CLOCKWORK is no exception and it even goes deeper. This is my favorite song on the record because it speaks to what I referred to in YOU CAN’T BLAME ME, which is the song before this, oddly enough. But your prayer to God doesn’t work here, sir. Just wait until you’re 48, then you will understand that what you had a glimpse of in your 20’s pales in comparison to what reality IS when you’re 48.
TIL WE’RE GONE – nice piano in the intro, again kind of changing it up. I really enjoy the gate of the tempo. This lyric: “Fade into a memory till we’re gone” – truer words were never spoken. Did he take into the account of how we move through life, exactly like a song’s vibrations played through an instrument. Gotta be honest, this one kind of stabbed my heart a little because of the sheer truth to what he said. All the days behind me that have done exactly that and one step further and simply vanished from my mind.
SALT LAKE CITY – odd how an Emo song can have the most melancholy subject or somewhat daunting lyrics and make it sound so happy. I wonder if this is why metalcore rose up so strong in the 2000s. Was it that we were tired of pretending that we were happy when really, what we were trying to convey is that we did have painful thoughts and things that hurt our feelings but we had to mask or bandaid them for appearance sake.
WHERE’S MY CHARGER – this is the epitome of why emo is the youth choice of their generation. Fast and furious, like a car that is sponsored by Pepsi, a band can in this vein take a simple question like “Where’s my charger?” which has almost the same meaning as asking a stranger in passing “how are you today?”. Keeping the distortion to a low scrape, MAKEOUT puts this to music in a 1:23 minute song and slaps it on the record. Why? Because it’s culturally relevant. It is the marker of an era like hair color is in DNA.
BLAST OFF – in the melody of this song there is woven in it the adios to the queerness of how you felt as a teen and as you move on into your twenties, you realize as you begin adulting, what you thought was factual and right and how it would be, was just a facade. What you thought becomes the tempo of the drums in BLAST OFF, quick from anxiety and hard pops that tell you almost minute by minute that you weren’t prepared at all. That you’d rather go back and write lyrics for emo music as you hide the pangs of adulting.
How do you rightly describe the music style of bands like GREEN DAY, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, and WEEZER? Where bands used the power of a melodic tone to piggyback an expressive lyric that distinguishes a band’s sound. Isn’t emo just a style or way the music comes out from a band? What I don’t get is where we started saying that post hardcore acts lyrics kind of became a singer or lyricist confession. Wait, aren’t most lyrics confessional in some way?
Like or dislike emo, MAKEOUT is a band that uses everything that encompasses this style of music. From the distorted tones in the guitar, to the plops of the bass that could easily melt into the drum beats. I adore the longevity of Emo and MAKEOUT brings the sound that so many of us grew up either loving or hating, to new heights. ‘The Good Life’ is an incredible depiction of how asylum music that begin in the 1980 is still going strong and that being done right by bands like MAKEOUT in 2017.
TRACKLIST
Childish
Crazy
Lisa
Ride it Out
Open Minded
You Can’t Blame Me
Clockwork
Till We’re Gone
Salt Lake City
Secrets
Where’s My Charger
Blast Off