No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me
I’ve been a fan of this band since I first heard their 2003 Ep: Our Youth Is Wasted. However, I’m not a fan of this record.
No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me has seen them take another big step sideways, heading deep into the grunge territory that was hinted at with last years album: Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God.
With NODTBHMTM, Blacklisted have moved into the garage and started jamming, trading aggression for introversion. The garage sound leaks through in the production, the guitars losing a lot of their edge, the drums sludgy, roomy and rocky. There has also been an effort made in terms of creative instrumentation with violins, trumpet, organ and keyboard pads all being used in different songs. The opening track, Our Apartment Is Always Empty a violin carries the bridge through a pretty dark and gloomy bridge.
For an album of eleven tracks, three interludes and one acoustic dirge make for slim pickings. However, the standout tracks for me are the title track - No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me, Our Apartment Is Always Empty and Palisade. These three songs are the only three I can hear being performed without large amounts of awkwardness.
There are still moments of the old Blacklisted that I love, for instance, when vocalist George Hirsch tells his stories you can’t help but feeling like a fly on a wall watching a domestic tragedy:
“As the world fell in love with me, you fell out of so it seems. Change your sheets to rid yourself of me, cause it been weeks and you used to speak in your sleep.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a variety and experimentation in music and in hardcore but if I wanted to listen to grunge fused with hardcore, I’d listened to Fucked Up because The Chemistry of Common Life is a much more engaging and compelling listen than NODTBHMTM.
I’m sure lots of people are going to love this album, and it will probably win a lot of fans on College Radio in the states, but I’m gunna stick with the Blacklisted I know and love.
For fans of Nirvana and Fucked Up.
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2.5 stars