Anne Boleyn?

Apparently I will also being Anberlin live at the House of Blues in March, as they'll be in New Orleans. My friend, Lauren Shaw gave me a copy of Never Take Friendship Personal , their sophomore release. All I can say for now is that it is one of the best modern rock albums I've ever heard. I liked this band when I heard Blueprints for the Black Market. When NTFP came out, I've adored songs like "Paperthin Hymn" and "Time and Confusion" ever since, listening to them off PureVolume until now, having heard the all of the CD, I must take a minute to review the album.
Anberlin's Never Take Friendship Personal is, as the title suggests, a statement of the inadequacy of human relationships. There are moments of ecstasy and depression on this album of highs and lows. No human relationship is free of scrutiny on this modern rock wonder: past lovers, lovers wanting to reunite, a commited couple with marital intentions, infatuation, parasitic friendships, the death of one's grandmother, the end of a dating relationship, lust and adultery, and overly-dependent friends. Overall, it can come across at first as a pessimistic album, with the title track (and opening track) coldly questioning, "If you can't hold yourself together, why should I hold you now?" However, the album is ever-upbeat, creating the whole "having a great time being miserable" effect. Even so, there are moments of great positivity and hope on the album. The basic idea explored is that there are indeed wonderful moments in human relationships, but that they are, ultimately, unfulfilling. In other words, having someone love and appreciate you as a person is great, but if you don't already love and appreciate yourself, a lover/friend/relative will never complete you as a person.

1. Never Take Friendship Personal - A growling guitar rhythm opens the album, where the vocalist almost screams at times about an apparently over-dependent friend who is milking him dry. "The greatest tragedy," singer Steven Christian laments, "is not your death, but a life without reason...a life without purpose." In other words, this song states that friendships can easily go from a mutually-enhancing thing where both people benefit to a situation where a person loses sight of his/her own reason for living. One of the "heaviest" songs on the album, the blistering guitar riffs will get stuck in your head pretty fast...

2. Paperthin Hymn - Here, the singer sings about the death of his grandmother. He sings of just wanting to have one more chance to put his arms in the fragile hands of his grandmother and missing the opportunity to drive her around town, call her on Sunday morning, etc. He turns from singing to his lost loved one in the second verse to admonishing the listener that "August evenings bring solemn warnings to kiss the ones you love goodnight / You never know what temporal days may bring / Laugh and love, live free and sing / When life is in dischord / Praise ye the Lord". The emotion of this song is unmatched in any modern "emo" band. It is genuine and hearfelt. The guitar riff is so weird and unique that it makes it one of the best available in modern rock. Ironically, the singer laments that "complaints of violins become my only friends."

3. Stationary Stationery - In this gleeful-sounding pop number, the singer somewhat bitterly asks an ex-girlfriend how she is doing, even broaching the subject of how her new boyfriend is treating her. He seems to have not been able to break free of desiring her, yet he tells her that he is moving on. Musically, this is the ugly duckling of the album. The song is catchy, but it's a bit too pop/radio-friendly and predictable to be on such a great album. It ends up being the most "feel-good" on the album, though, giving it great radio potential (why didn't they use this as a radio single?).

4. (The Symphony of) Blasé - The album slows down to provide the softest track on the album. It is a beautiful yet tragic rock ballad about the end of a romance. "This is our last goodnight / Say what you will / Say all that you can / This is our last goodbye / This is where love ends". The singer's voice is not angry or pained, but ironically very fragile and soft, adding to the tension of this sad, yet beautiful song.

5. A Day Late - A catchy punk-sounding track in which two people are now in commited relationships look back, wondering what it would have been like if they had decided to pursue each other "back then."

6. The Runaways - A slightly more angry-sounding long with a big electronic-rock sounding opening. "You only stayed to break my heart / I can tell it by the way you run away, Runaway Girl". About two people who admit their original intentions for entering the relationship were flawed. It appears that the speaker's perception is that they were either A) infatuated with each other or B) tired of being single so just dated from being "in love with love."

7. Time and Confusion - Based on personal experience, I'm a little biased when I say that this is the song I listen to most of this album. Overall, it's not as catchy musically, yet it adds some new vocal elements and inventive drumming that is a welcome change. This is the most positive song on the album. It's about two people in a long-distance relationship. The singer's perspective is that hardship they've faced together has made their commitment stronger than ever: "We fell on hard times / This isn't the ideal / We're miles from home / Doing the best that we can, best that we can / I won't do this without you/ I won't do this without you so take heart / Cause you know that you have mine".

8. The Feel Good Drag - Possibly my album favorite. Also the angriest and most depressing. The verses are almost whispered and the chorus is scream-sung. It is a song about lust and adultery, about lies and deception, about the modern tragedy of "Everyone in this town seeing somebody else." The singer seems equally angry at A) The woman who lured him into an illicit relationship B) himself for giving into temptation. "This was over before / Before it ever began / Your lips / Your lies / Your lust / Like the Devil's in your hands".

9. Audrey, Start the Revolution! - A fast-paced rocker about two people who were together in the past, made mistakes, broke up, and now are ready to get back together. Again, one of the more hopeful songs on the record. The singer is caught between two opinions: a hope that everything will work out this time and a fear of setting himself for disappointment. "If this isn't love / This is the closest I've ever been / Do you think we have a chance?". A fun one to sing along to.

10. A Heavy-Hearted Work of Staggering Genius - Aside from the pretentious title, this instrumental track is pretty good. It's also got a stingy track length of less than 2 minutes. Really, it serves as an opening to what may be the best song Anberlin has done to date...

11. Dance, Dance Christa Päffgen - Rock ballad extraordinaire! Victory for modern rock! 7 minutes long! Opened by a bass line, filled with inventive guitar work, varying vocal styles in one song, incredibly vivid lyrics...amazing! The singer here has his eyes on a special girl and feels like she's the only one he could ever imagine himself with. Yet it's not clear whether or not he perceives this as a mere infatuation, whether or not the love is requited by the girl, or even if the two have met. At least, he has seen her on the dance floor and is overcome with such things as her beauty, mysteriousness, pretty eyes, etc. The song's meaning is ambiguous. It's unclear whether Steven C. wrote the song with the intention of A) warning against throwing caution to the wind when thinking that you love someone or B) encouraging the listener that anything is possible, "you'll never know until you try" sort of thing, if you're in love, don't be bashful, go for it type thing. (I've read several other more professional reviews, which support different sides, but I personally think (B) is the correct interpretation). It contains what is my favorite lyric from the album: "Don't need no drug / You're my chemical / Now I'm dependent / Swear I'm clinical / Addicted to those glances / Taking chances tonight / I need a fix / In those heroin eyes".

The message is that relationships sometimes are wonderful, and sometimes are draining. You have to work at them, and even then, they are not the be-all end-all that we crack them up to be. This suggests a latent spirituality of the record, with a reference to "the Lord" and "God", hinting at what Stephen Christian finds as his alternative to broken, unfulfilling human relationships.
I mainly have reviewed the lyrical content of the CD, and enjoyed the album richly because of its relationships emphasis. However, if that is a deterrant to you, calm down. I hardly touched at all on the musical ingenuity of this album, because I don't know where to start. Plain and simple, it rocks. The guitars are likable and catchy. This is rock n' roll for the masses of modern youth. I liked "Paperthin Hymn" so much I listened to it alone for about a year before I listened to much else on the CD. Never Take Friendship Personal is artistic in every sense of the word...and Anberlin is a band name that won't be going away for quite some time.