I wasn’t expecting to write a review of the new Say Anything album this week. I don’t think anyone was. I was in the car with my girlfriend, saying that they should have a new single out soon, and within a few days, the entire album is streaming on their website.

I’m going to say this right off the bat: This album is going to get trashed by fans and (probably) critics alike. I’m a fan of all their previous albums, and I’m no critic at all. The album is (for the band’s standard) lo-fi, scratchy, and the vocal production is reminiscent of Bemis’ Painful Splits releases. There’s no way around the fact that this is a weird album, even as a follow-up to 2014’s Hebrews. With the disclaimer out of the way, I feel confident in saying (after seven listens) that this is the band’s second best album (after ...Is a Real Boy, what else?) The album is the closest to bands whose inspiration has always been behind Say Anything: American Football, At the Drive-In, Rage Against the Machine. (At the Drive-In’s Paul Hinojos even contributes to the album.) In a fair world, “17 Coked Up and Speeding” will be recognized as one of the band’s best. “Rum” and “Goshua” toy with the band’s electronic flirtations once more, blending it with the more “punk” edge of ...Is A Real Boy and Hebrews (whatever that means). At points, the album feels like the forgotten lovechild of Twenty-One Pilots and Yeezus-era Kanye (who apparently mentored Max Bemis on the album’s production). Speaking of which, is there a reference to the Death Grips’ “Billy Not Really” hidden in the lyrics? Who knows.

The lyrics are eclectic and at their most Bemis. Phrases such as “Could it be in our wank of shame that we’re clutching the same member?” and “Jungian referenced therapy baptized by a Big Gulp” remind me of what got me into the band in the first place. “The Bret Easton Ellis School of Witchcraft and Wizardry” is among the band’s best ballads, “I Want to Know Your Plans,” and “Goodbye Young Tutor, You’ve Now Outgrown Me.” One’s reaction to its spoken-word anecdote, “I knew you when you had a poster of Katie Holmes in your room because you thought she was the kind of girl who might realistically like you if you play your cards right. Where’s that shoddy hope tonight?” will likely determine whether or not they’ll appreciate this album. It might sound petty, but petty songs about acne cream and Best New Music tracks are the foundation of this band. A lot can be said about capturing the seemingly non-important and showing how much the “nonconsequential” really does add up to. “It’s the frightfully mundane that keeps us alive,” as the album says.

If Hebrews was Max turning on fans and proclaiming that he wasn’t going to make the legitimate follow-up to ...Is a Real Boy, then this is the album that seemed so impossible in 2014, just not in the package we might have expected. Written largely about Bemis’ best friend, Joshua Adam Sultan (whose face is the album cover), the lyrics feel at once personal and universal when he promises to “Burn out with [you].” I remember when Anarchy, My Dear leaked, I thought “Well, I can’t wait to see how fans react to the band’s maturation,” and before I knew it, Sputnik Music was emblazoned with the pop-punk equivalent of the 95-Theses. Listening to this album, I find it crazy, laden with tmi, confusing, and often unpredictable. It might not be the album fans love, but it’s the album this fan has always wanted.

9.75/10