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Say Anything

I'd like to share some of my thoughts on Say Anything's new self-titled album. Max Bemis said he was making this album to get back in the favor of Is a Real Boy fans. I'm not sure how he thought Say Anything would accomplish this.

It's a pop mess. I tried to think of what band this record sounds like, but I drew a blank. I don't listen to bands that sound like this.

Background time: Is a Real Boy is the single greatest work of art this planet has ever heard. Also, I have no musical background.

"Fed to Death" started things off well. "Hate Everyone" is definitely tolerable, but by no means is it something I would listen to often. The next two songs, "Less Cute" and "Do Better," are exactly the kind of pop music I never wanted to hear from Say Anything.

"Eloise" is a good song in its own right. "Mara and Me" is also excellent and harkens to Is a Real Boy, when songs were complex and weren't focused solely on the lyrics. Two in a row; good work, guys.

I really like the acoustic version of "Crush'd" that Max played on the radio waves in the months before Say Anything's release. The album version adds nothing to that iteration, distracting otherwise cute lyrics with annoying noise.

"She Won't Follow You" is a pretty good pop song, but it's nothing groundbreaking. "Cemetary" didn't do it for me and the lyrics sounded very generic. But, I really like "Property," which must be my second-favorite song on the album. This is another fairly complex song, with a few different tempos. Still, I wish the spoken-word part would have been better integrated with the rest of the song.

A song called "Death for My Birthday" by Say Anything would have been totally different if it were made in 2004. It sounds like morbid Kidz Bop. The only part of "Young, Dumb, and Stung" that I like is from about 1:45 to 2:30 when Max tells his little aside; very "Yellow Cat (Slash) Red Cat." "Ahhh...Men" is my favorite song on the album, mostly for its second half. Actually, this one is probably my favorite Say Anything song since Was a Real Boy in 2006. On my ideal copy of the album, "Ahhh...Men" would be the first song on the record followed by twelve songs that I actually enjoyed.

Is a Real Boy was about the music. With In Defense of the Genre, Say Anything decided the words were most important and best set to pop sounds. Say Anything keeps that trend going. On a completely arbitrary scale, I give it a six out of ten.

I probably won't buy the next Say Anything album unless the band admits that they've been huffing since 2007.

Postscript: Coby Linder said this is the album Baseball fans have been waiting for. He must be huffing. Max said Say Anything would be Is a Real Boy part two. I don't understand why he would say such a thing. He clearly has a far different opinion of Is a Real Boy from me. He also said "Crush'd" sounds like it was produced by Timbaland. That's insulting to Timbaland.

When I first listened to Was a Real Boy, I thought it was awful. I don't know what I was thinking, because it's almost the exact same music as Is a Real Boy. Maybe, in a few months, I'll think I was crazy for not accepting this album at first. But probably not.