After a brief stopover in Major Label Land, Alkaline Trio has returned to the indies. This Addiction is their first album for Epitaph, and it retains the polish of their last album. Alkaline Trio haven’t been a straight-up punk outfit for a long time, but this is the closest they have come to straight up pop/rock. This Addiction is supposed to be Alkaline Trio’s comeback, but it never quite gets off the ground.
Punks have no need to fear. Matt Skiba has not gotten a trendy Johnny Rezeznik haircut or written a song for a Meg Ryan picture. The Trio’s sound is intact. The melodies are fast and catchy. The rhythm section bops along behind them. However, the instruments are pushed to the bottom of the mix. The guitars are barely audible over Matt Skiba’s vocals, so it’s hard to pick out any melodies. The dull production makes the arrangements run together. You have punk rave-ups that never quite hit full steam, and dull mid-tempo numbers.
Listening to This Addiction, you get the feeling that Matt Skiba feels hindered by the genre. His vocals are passable. Punk rock is all about passion. It’s all about the veins popping out of your neck because you have to get rid of the anger you feel inside. Skiba’s voice rises at precisely the right moment, but the bite isn’t there. The bad production is partially to blame, but it seems like Skiba is having trouble dredging up his past demons. He wants give the people the Alkaline Trio they loved, but he’s moved on.
Some tracks have a lot of potential. “Draculina” has a decent hook, but the vampire references are forced. The vampire metaphor is fine, but “she sank her teeth quite deep in me” is trite. Skiba’s monotone vocals don’t help much either. This girl reeled him in, has a bunch of demons, yadda yadda yadda. Why can’t he emote? Where is the supposed forbidden passion that vampires are supposed to provide?
Similarly, “Dine, Dine My Darling” alludes to a Misfits song, but contains no fury. The Misfits and Alkaline Trio are two totally different bands with completely different aesthetics, but still. When you reference one of the most hardcore songs ever recorded to tape, you would think there would be something. Instead, there’s just some mid-level crooning.
This Addiction is proof of what a lifeless production can do to a record. An electric guitar should never be pushed to the back of a mix. If you are listening to a pop punk record and have trouble deciphering the hook, there is a serious problem. There were high hopes for This Addiction, but it proves that moving back to the indies was only a partial fix. Matt Skiba needs to go back to the lab, because nothing really worked. He’s a talented songwriter, but how much more traction does his pain have?