Anberlin Cities Album Review

Apparently, most bands think their third album release is amazing. One of my favorite bands of all time (probably soon to be officially announced as my favorite band for about 2 years straight now), Anberlin, says this about their new release Cities. Naturally, I was thrilled to give the album a listen when it arrived in my mailbox last Tuesday.

Cities is preceded by Anberlin’s debut Blueprints for the Black Market and their sophomore release Never Take Friendship Personal (NTFP). For me, it was NTFP that won my heart over. I found that even more prominent than the engaging musicianship was the lyrical approach that frontman Stephen Christian took to his songs. Stephen has one of those “hate it or love it” voices that is instantly recognizable in the indie rock scene for its high pitch. It’s soothing vocals with crunchy guitars. Naturally, going into Cities, I was anxious to see if this album could “beat” NTFP, which became for me a tie with my previous favorite album of all time, Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the Head.

A few things become prominent about Anberlin’s newest release, right from the start. First of all is the lyrical shift away from relationships to a broader array of topics. Everything from drug abuse and ungodliness in the rock and roll world in “Godspeed” to depression and broken families in “Hello Alone” to the desire to change one’s lifestyle in “Dismantle.Repair.” There are still three songs that deal with relationships, “Inevitable,” “There Is No Mathematics to Love and Loss” and “Adelaide,” the latter two of which are negative and the first of which is somewhere along the lines of “Time and Confusion” from NTFP.

Also, the “post-emo” / “punk” box of the first two releases is gone. You have punk/alternative rock-flavored songs that are obviously formulaic Anberlin: “Adelaide,” “Hello Alone,” and “Dismantle.Repair.” But the album becomes schizophrenic at times for the band, as they leave their formula from the first two albums. Is this a good or bad thing? I think it’s a neutral thing. Honestly, this was a deterrent from my enjoyment of the album at first. To be honest, NTFP is my favorite of their albums. But to be similarly honest, I think Cities is their best. They’ve finally found who they are on this record. This really was the next logical step for them. They’ve already said that Cities is to Anberlin what OK Computer was to Radiohead. Daring and innovative, yet building upon the Anberlin approach that fans have come to love.

Stephen Christian has said that this is the most mature album. He defines Blueprints as having been a Man vs. World album, with NTFP becoming a Man vs. Man, dealing with relationships. With Cities, we have a Man vs. Self approach, in songs like “Reclusion” and “Alexithymia” (a-lex-i-thee-me-uh, the inability to express emotion).

001 (Debut) – This is a minute and a half instrumental track of slow-build rock, with several layers of electric guitars and other electronic blips/beeps and some indigenous “city” noises. Normally, instrumental opening tracks are awkward. This one is not. It is the best intro I’ve heard to an album, ever. I hope they use this in their live shows on tour. It will be a great way to slowly build emotion and anticipation in the crowd. Though it is a strange little track, I have actually replayed it over and over again. It blends beautifully into the hard-charging first song of the album…

002 Godspeed – When Anberlin first released this song on iTunes before the album release, I didn’t like it. I don’t know what made it grow on me, but it’s fantastic. It is what “Readyfuels” was to Blueprints for the Black Market and the title track was to Never Take Friendship Personal. An upbeat, angry-sounding rock track. That said, “Godspeed” is in my opinion the best album opener they’ve had to date. It has the fastest tempo of the three and really gets things going nicely. Musically, “Godspeed” opens with a superb guitar riff, before slowing down for the verses, which reference “black tar” and “white lines”, references to heroin and cocaine, “another death by misadventure.” Perhaps the most powerful line is “the bad turns to worse and the worst turns into Hell.” That line can be taken metaphorically, as in addiction and ungodly “misadventures” lead into a state of hellacious living, or even more harsh and literally, that the rock and roll lifestyle leads its participants to damnation. The song is a mixture of punk elements and even some 1980s metal, which you hear in the chorus vocals, a la “whoa oh oh oh!” The chorus is the repetitive “They lied when they said the good die young!”, a direct contradiction of the Billy Joel song. Great song.

003 Adelaide – When was the last time you met a girl named Adelaide? What a great name for a girl. Apparently Stephen Christian thought so, too, and took a relationship story from the book of his own life and changed the name of the girl to “Adelaide” for the purposes of this song. The song boasts Cities’ most catchy chorus. Adelaide! // You really had me going this time // Adelaide! // You need to quit, quit making a scene. The song is apparently about a girl who is “scared of being alone” and is deriving a self worth and identity based on the relationship, driving them both mad. At the same time, the singer can’t seem to get this girl out of his head: Like lipstick traces on pillow cases // Some things in life are unforgettable // Life loss, love, lies, and us (oh whoa oh) // Some things in life are undeniable. This is the pop-punk song of the album, and for me, the most fun and bright song Anberlin has done to date. It will no doubt make a great song live, with its huge, colorful, singable chorus. The guitars are best described as obnoxious, colorful, pretty, and raucous.

004 A Whisper & a Clamor – Lyrically, this one of the most confusing songs on the record. I have no clue what the song is about. That said, this is another musical masterpiece. It continues the innovative and loud guitars of “Adelaide” with another “big” chorus: Clap your hands all ye children // There’s a clamor in your whispering // Hear what the silence screams. I have a theory that this song is based on Stephen Christian’s travels to India. He worked with rescuing little girls enslaved in the sex trafficking industry. He mentioned in his weblog the faces of the children. Perhaps, the song is desire to hear the children rejoicing, but instead the silent, dejected looks on their faces attests to the “clamor” of the suffering they are going through. Other parts of the song refer to “bedside resolve” and not “knowing who they are” and later on “it’s not the lies that you say, but what the silence will scream.” Perhaps, this is about outsiders not caring about this suffering and being quiet on the issue and never really doing anything about it. Whatever the case is, the song is a cacophony of great rock, with a great breakdown of piano and acoustics for a bridge, and then a final chorus with some experimental drumming.

005 The Unwinding Cable Car – This is my second favorite track on the album. A rock ballad. Where “Symphony of Blasé” failed off of NTFP, this song succeeds. Almost strictly acoustic, the song contains a softly-crooned chorus with two or three vocal lines sung on top of each other. In addition to this choral harmony are some surprising “la la’s” twice in the song. So self-absorbed you’ve seemed to ignore // the prayers that have already come about // This is the correlation // of salvation and love // Don’t drop your arms // I’ll guard your heart // With quiet words I’ll lead you in. Definitely the “feel-good” height of the album, a song of encouragement and hope.

006 There Is No Mathematics to Love and Loss – This is where the album got a little boring to me. It’s a good song but just changes the feel of things. Opening are some loud synthesizers to greet this song about a woman leaving a man, seemingly married, because there is a “lack of rings.” There are some great pop elements to the song, including the synth, some starts and stops, and great vocal effects. This is where Anberlin breaks the old formula and does some experimentation. I’d say the effect is overall very catchy and memorable. There is algebra in gasoline // Burning pictures, pages and photographs // Fire can make a conscious clean // Strike the match, let’s see…//. The song explores the irony of seemingly being unable to reconcile with someone, yet being unable to clear one’s conscience from the guilt of leaving a relationship in disrepair.

007 Hello Alone – Instant Anberlin classic. The song sounds like it was made for wintertime. The opening guitar sounds creepy and eerie, haunting like a ghost. The song deals with depression, suicidal thoughts, broken families, broken promises, abandonment by friends, etc. Depression is an unholy ghost in the coastal towns within // Though I know a thousand names // I seem my only friend // I’ve got the gun // All I need is // 10 cents for the bullet. Musically, the chorus is a little cliché lyrically and the guitars soften a little too much. But somehow the song comes together because the changes in tempo throughout the song give the song momentum. The verses are speedy and fast-paced, with a slower, wailing chorus. This song is one of several to demonstrate how much the drummer for this band has improved. They apparently let him do whatever he wanted to on this album, and result is blissfully obvious. He goes into so many crazy variations within each song, it’s wonderful.

008 Alexithymia – More experimentation! Once again, the result is undeniably good. Opening with a bass riff and some cymbal action, an acoustic guitar then enters for some meditative verses about a family who sits in silent at the dinner table and is no longer able to communicate, before the heavier guitars enter in the chorus: With downcast eyes // There’s more to living than being alive. The song is a slow-burning, slow-tempo song, but builds in intensity, a ballad of sorts. Each chorus has slightly heavier guitars, and breakdown before the last chorus has a soaring and spage-age sounding guitar solo that brings the song into an eerie and ethereal sound that new for Anberlin. If there’s one song to sum up the mood and attitude of this album, I’d say it’s “Alexithymia.” It’s almost the theme song of the album. Which points to another thing that becomes evident about Cities: while NTFP was a great collection of songs, Cities is a great album. It’s more consistent thematically.

009 Reclusion – Here is where things become alarmingly serious, in a good way. A surprisingly dark song for Anberlin, this is almost the ugly duckling of the album. Musically, the only thing that carries the song is the dark and gloomy synthesizers. That’s a good thing if you like synth; if not, it will kill this song for you. The only guitar that’s constant throughout the song is percussive in nature: a constant metal-sounding undertone. The verses are lyrically intense and powerful, but the chorus becomes a little too repetitive. I found this song a little irritating overall, which is unfortunate. I think it could have been a little better than it is. A bit of a disappointment musically. Lyrically, though, it is piercing, harsh and fabulous. You’re sick! Sick as all the // Secrets that you deny // Sins like skeletons are // So very hard to hide…// Tell the tales of the trail of dead // Lovers learned from slower hands // Losing self in myself // Inner demons make demands. Once again, the song lyrically shows what makes Stephen Christian such an awesome songwriter and frontman. He takes an autobiographical approach to every song. He said in a DVD recording of the making of this album that many of these songs, including “Reclusion,” are like chances for him to make public confessions of his shortcomings. Definitely a “grower” song, which will probably be spoken of in years to come as an unloved yet undeniably interesting song.

010 Inevitable – And more experimentation. They had to throw in one happy-go-lucky love song on the album. But the fact is…they did a good job. With some nice pizzicato violin and some stand up bass drum percussion (I’m not sure what you call this particular type of drum circle they utilize). I want to break every clock // The hands of time would never move again // We could stay in this moment for the rest of our lives // Is it over now, hey? // Hey, is it over now? // I wanna be your last first kiss that you’ll ever have. It’s nice to hear a positive song about romantic love for once from this band. This song grew on me. Very pretty and uplifting. Though nothing to write home about, so to speak.

011 Dismantle.Repair. – Every once in a while there is a song that captures your attention in such a way that you think, “This is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard.” “Dismantle.Repair” is one of those songs. On Anberlin’s message board, many fans are already saying this song is Anberlin’s crowning glory, the best song they have written or ever will write. It represents of all their maturation processes to date. The song builds from acoustic guitar, to acoustic and drums, to slow guitar bridges to loud and raucous guitar and screaming choruses, each of which becomes louder than the last. The song is a song about change. Hands like secrets are the hardest thing to keep from you // Lines and phrases like knives your words can cut me through // Dismantle me down // Repair! // You dismantle me // You dismantle me // Help me! // Save me from myself // Oh, oh! // Things are going to change now for the better. It is about being wounded to be healed. It is about being taken apart and put back together. It is about being changed from what you are into something entirely different. At times it seems like the singer is singing to a friend with all the right answers and encouragement, at other times to a significant other, at other times undoubtedly to God.

012 (*Fin) – Lauded by many fans as an epic and classic song, this was and still is my least favorite, though it really has grown on me. In length and scope it is much like “Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen” from NTFP. At almost 9 minutes long, Anberlin apparently took a cue from the Rolling Stones, who recorded a song by just going into the studio and singing random lines and praying random percussion instruments. The song is either love it or hate it, and I am starting to love it. It’s first three minutes are acoustic, and the middle section is guitar frenzy, with an ending two minutes or quickly and frenziedly sung lines. “Fin” means “end” in Spanish. In many ways, this song is about the “end” of what a human is capable of knowing. Aren’t we all to you just lost causes? // Do you remember the house on Ridge Road // Told you and the devil to just leave me alone // If this is salvation // I can show you the trembling // We’re not questioning God // Just those he chose to carry on His cross. The song is ultimately about human failure. After the singer identifies himself as the “patron saint of lost causes,” a kids choir comes in amidst the guitars and sings “Patron saint, are we all lost causes like you?” The emotion and honesty packed into the song is unprecedented for what most bands could hope to achieve in their lifetime. Overall, a good choice for a closer.

So, will you enjoy Cities? If you’re new to the band, my answer is unreservedly, “yes”. There is enough to keep you interested for quite some time, lyrically and musically. Fans may be slower to resort to accepting a break from what was already a successful Anberlin formula. I think that ultimately fans will appreciate this album for not trying to be anything, but in doing so, becoming an often introspective and thoroughly profound look the turmoil and dichotomy that can exist within the city of a human soul.