The Menzingers - Hello Exile (October 4, 2019) Album • Page 65

I prefer more on the nose lyrics honestly.

 

I don't dislike the album. I don't think any part of the simplistic lyrics will grow on me over time. They are what they are.

 

As someone who got into Menzingers through Gaslight, it's funny reading these critiques after this album was being compared to Handwritten on here earlier -- as they're very similar to the criticisms I had about Handwritten's lyrics. (A lot of songs felt like Gaslight-lite; all the familiar themes and motifs were there but without much specificity or poetic flavor).

I do kinda agree with that critique as it relates to the lyrics here, but I still really enjoy the album. The difference between this and my problems with Handwritten is that I think Greg has much more of a sense of humor and self-awareness than Brian Fallon does (or did during that album). The cliches about getting fucked up and reminiscing and everything have just enough tongue-in-cheek delivery to them that it makes him seem fully aware of how silly and melodramatic he sounds. And there's still a lot of the detail-rich storytelling that makes a lot of the cliches come to life.

There are spots here and there that irk me; the worst is when the bridge of Farewell Youth slows down for a clunker of a line about "someone's apartment...getting fucked up...listening to our favorite records...drinking the cheap stuff..." (which, at track 12, just sounds like a menzingers madlib) and it kinda takes a bit of the sting out of the great Irish wake line/reveal that follows.

All in all, really enjoy this album and probably put it above Rented World. But I see where some of the critiques are coming from.

 

Oh man I completely disagree. Black Mass and The Bars are overtly "dark", and I think that there's an underlying tinge of sadness on even the most optimistic or forward looking tracks on the record. I don't find the couple in "After the Party" to be in good shape at all, maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

 

I get the criticism that these songs hit on a lot of the same topics as previous Menzingers songs, but I don't think it's because they have nothing new to say. Rather, I think it's because they have something new to say about those things with the perspective of age and, at least in part, where we are as a country right now.

There was a darkness underlying much of ATP, but it only occasionally, and briefly, came to the surface. This album makes that subtext the text, which is exactly what I think it set out to do.

 

Maybe the darkness was less overt on ATP, but it was absolutely there. I mean, look at Tellin Lies alone as a mission statement. “Where are we gonna go now that our twenties are over?” could be read as optimistic I suppose, but I feel like there are a lot of negative connotations of feeling lost attached to it.

 

I would pay good money for a Lydia Loveless covers album of all Menzingers songs.

 

Everyone should listen to the album she put out last month. Some good stuff on there.

 

What album?

 

I did a piano cover of Lookers a few years back, need to find it.

 

Oh wait, I've done this before lol whenever I see lydialoveless I think it's Lydia Liza, so that's who I was talking about. My bad

 

There were criticisms made about Handwritten????????????????

 

Haha my Handwritten takes are not shared by most here. Gaslight's my favorite band so my least favorite of their albums is still an album I very much enjoy. Just didn't find the lyrics on Handwritten as strong as Fallon's other work. I admit my slightly negative feelings about the album were impacted by the turbulence going on with the band/Fallon in the year following its release; I now appreciate it more as the big-budget rock album of the band's discography.

 

Oh, I forgot about "Black Mass." Okay, I'd agree on that one. "After the Party," I think that couple is super in love and realizing they maybe don't need the noise and bustle of their younger lives anymore. I've always read that song as an absolute love song, and I don't think it comes from a bad place for that couple at all.

I guess I take most of that record to be like when you jokingly say something along the lines of "Shit, I'm getting old!" versus this album, which is actually realizing your youth is long gone. I think you're right that there's a sadness in some of those songs, but it seems really more bittersweet to me on the whole, whereas Hello Exile is pretty muted and regretful across the board.

 

I don't really think it's an "optimistic" record, per se, but "dark" just isn't the word I'd use to describe that album either. Apprehensive, maybe?

 

Yeah I agree with this. The chorus is like redundant and seems to meander along but to me that’s like the battle going on inside your own head where you know you need to slow down but all you can do is just keep repeating the same things to yourself, kind of knowing that you need to slow down but only able to focus on drinking and how it’s affecting everything. Idk I’m rambling but it reminds me of going on like a long bender and the “blah” feeling that comes with the hangover the next day. It really captures that feeling.

 

Could a diamond in the rough ever be enough?
I’ve been mining for your love
Since the day that we met I’ve spent
Every second in your minefield digging it up
Can you strain your memory back to the times
When trouble wasn’t always on our minds?

 

Fair enough, I'm a little critical of Elsie (and by that I mean I love it.....but think it's his worst album) which nobody agrees with, so I get it.

 

I've been enjoying this album a lot more than I thought I would, have already listened more than I probably have ever listened to ATP. Was never able to get into it for whatever reason. I don't even think this is that different, it just clicks for me.

 

I think...”Hello Exile” may actually be my favorite song on here?

 

Also, am I the only one who likes that vocal effect at the end of Strawberry Mansion?

 

Every time I play a Menzingers song acoustically, I can never quite get my vocals as gnar gnar as Tom or Gregs... I did do a cover of Mexican Guitars one time that exists online though. haha.

 

I’m coming around that way as well