Review Summary: Front man, Matt Skiba, enlists the help of Atom Willard to create a short but explosive debut ep.
I've always been fascinated by Matt Skiba. He manages to always create insanely catchy pop-punk without making it overly poppy. That's probably why his main day job with Alkaline Trio always caught my attention. Which leads me to this ep. I have listened to his prior solo albums and I was very impressed with his split with Kevin Seconds. The problem I've had with his latest works with Alkaline was that I thought they lacked raw emotion and passion. Well, this ep in my humble opinion manages to show that he still has it in him.
The first song that I heard was "Gasoline" and it blew me away. Sure, it has the typical Skiba riffs and chord progressions, but it has this energy and raw vocals of days that are long gone. Plus, it has one of the best and catchiest choruses I've heard in a while. If I could recommend one song to hear by them this would be the one. It's very showing of the ep as a whole. The dark lyrics and tone will continue.
As in typical fashion, the riffs are catchy hiding the bitterness of the lyrics in "Vais Te Faire Foutre". "No Where Left" and "R R R" finish off this touch quite nicely. The main problem I have with the ep as a whole is that although the songs are well crafted, they can tend to drift into each other in terms of similarity. Also, at this junction Matt Skiba really has little to offer in poignant and honest lyrics. "Gasoline" has the same anti-religious diatribe that was done in "Hell Yes" and "Fire Down Below". The only heart wrenching moment is when he sings, "When I leave, you'll never see my face again". I say that because I believe he believes it truly. His seeming bitterness tends to always come through and at this point is nothing new in his catalog. All in all, this is a very strong ep that is a grower. It shows that musically, he might be able to pull off a few more good albums.
