AFI
Sing the Sorrow
(Dreamworks)
AFI's first venture into the world of major label releases is an album that begs to draw scrutiny. Singer Davey Havok has recently stated that he no longer knows what punk is exactly, but it appears that he definitely knows what goth rock is and how to cash in on it. Apparently the kids who shop at Hot Topic are rather profitable, turning Havok and his cohorts into Generation Y mall idols. Additionally, the band released Sing the Sorrow on media conglomerate Dreamworks Entertainment, which is rather fitting given that the album manages to itself straddle a wide range of styles. All the attention and potential for revenue even led the album's first single, \Girl's Not Grey,"" to be deemed ""Buzzworthy"" on MTV. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your outlook, Sing the Sorrow does not readily serve itself up for critical venom.
Sing the Sorrow begins rather slowly and broodingly, yet manages to build up the energy level quickly while never dropping the heavy-handed gloom. The songs themselves are well-crafted guilty pleasures, managing to have the infectiousness of pop music while ranging in style from AFI's hardcore punk roots to classic metal to new wave The Cure. Numerous styles are often prevalent together in the same song, forming a magnificently cheerless amalgam that inexplicably leaves the listeners singing along, pumping their fist, or finding other ways to embarrass themselves. The production from Jerry Finn and UW alum Butch Vig is at times overly glossy and orchestrated, but at the same time layered and complicated. Lyrically, Havok's work is akin to that of a depressed and awkward teenager who has a really good thesaurus. The major downfall of Sing the Sorrow, however, is the melodramatic tinkering with keys and cello accompanied by distracting whispers of spoken word, proving that the old adage of ""less talk, more rock"" still holds true.
-Justin Wolff
