#SMINO NOIR ALBUM COVER FULL#
As Petty did on Full Moon Fever, Laura Jane Grace has really found the sweet spot between the familiar and the new, and the result is one of the best records of her career.Īs both a solo artist and the frontman of Dinosaur Jr, J Mascis has spent the last decade or so on a serious creative high. There aren't many musicians who were regulars in the early 2000s punk scene that you can say that about today. The new songs have enough in common with classic Against Me! that they won't turn off longtime fans, but they sound fresher, newer, and more refined than AM!'s classic work. So, it's not immediately clear from listening to Bought to Rot why Laura didn't want this to be an Against Me! album, but what is clear is that her songwriting is stronger than ever. As you might expect from a solo album, the songwriting is often personal (it doesn't sound like "I Hate Chicago" is the only song about her divorce), but it's not like Laura has shied away from writing personal songs in AM! either. It's a bold, powerful, and very punk song that should get longtime Against Me! fans very excited about the Devouring Mothers, and it's just one of many rippers on the album ("Amsterdam Hotel Room" and "Valeria Golino" are two others that especially rip). The album opens with "China Beach," a "London Calling"-esque stomper that doesn't take long to turn into a blast of gnarly hardcore. though it's not without a sense of humor (see tongue-in-cheek divorce anthem "I Hate Chicago" and its zingers like "learn to make a pizza, you fucking jack-offs!").Īs this is a solo album and released on a mostly alt-country label (Bloodshot Records), you might be expecting Laura to lean into Against Me!'s folky side, and that happens sometimes like on standout single "Apocalypse Now (& Later)," "The Friendship Song," album closer "The Apology Song," and parts of other songs, but that's not the main approach. Against Me! already started a new chapter of their career not long ago with 2014's powerful Transgender Dysphoria Blues - which was Laura's first album since coming out as trans and written about the struggles that accompanied that - but even still, Bought to Rot sounds a little older and wiser. It sounds like songs Laura could've written for Against Me!, just as Full Moon Fever sounded like songs Petty could've written for the Heartbreakers, but there's something different about it something that sounds like the start of a new chapter. (The Devouring Mothers are rounded out by bassist Marc Hudson, who has engineered, co-produced, and contributed to Against Me! records in the past.) And like Full Moon Fever, Bought to Rot doesn't sound overwhelmingly like a solo album.
Petty was 38 when that album came out and Laura turned 38 yesterday (happy birthday, Laura!), Full Moon Fever followed seven Heartbreakers albums and Bought to Rot follows seven Against Me! albums, Petty had one Heartbreaker in his band for that album (guitarist Mike Campbell) and Laura has one Against Me! member in her band for this one (drummer Atom Willard). Against Me! singer Laura Jane Grace has said that she looked to Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever for inspiration for her first solo album (with backing band The Devouring Mothers), Bought To Rot, and the parallels are plentiful.
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