Review Summary: It's time, it's time I live my life
As of recently, I’ve found that the type of music I want to listen more often than not is stuff that is fun, stuff that jams hard, and stuff that I can sing or yell along to without a care in the world. I’ve tried to figure out why this is; why do I gravitate towards this genre of carefree, catchy alt rock? It’s not that I’m necessarily feeling sad all the time and need a pick-me-up. In fact, I’m usually a pretty happy person in general, buffering between boredom and bliss throughout most days. It’s probably due to the fact that with this type of music, I can effortlessly lose myself within the notes and riffs of the songs. I don’t have to put any extreme concentration or focus into listening to albums like this, and I don’t have to go through the process of figuring out if I even enjoy the album or not. I can just plug in, press play, and escape.
Tigers Jaw’s self-titled album is one of those albums for me. Actually, it’s been THE album for me over the past couple of years. Back to front this album just screams fun jams, intoxicating melodies, and lively guitar parts. It’s one of those albums I always find myself wanting to come back to, whether it’s for the boisterous tracks like ‘The Sun’ or ‘I Saw Water’, or the anthemic songs like ‘Never Saw it Coming’, the album never fails to hook me in. Even some of the slower paced tracks like ‘Chemicals’ and ‘Meals on Wheels’ offer gratifying elements, like Brianna’s harmonies throughout the former track or the echoed, round-style chorus of “
ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR” on the latter. Tigers Jaw doesn’t have to be super meaningful with their lyrics, and I feel like they realize this as well. The closing track features simplistic yet memorable lines like, “
I learned a lot about falling in love when I fell out of love” which, honestly, aren’t that insightful. But who cares when the song practically begs you to shout along with it, no matter how surface level the words they're singing are.
That’s not to say that all lyrics on here follow this pattern, however. In fact, many songs touch on some heavy subjects like loss of love, feelings of doubt and anxiety, and even commentary on being stuck in the American way of living. Tigers Jaw are at their most profound when lead singer Ben compares his feelings to that of the late Brian Jones, using the metaphor of drowning in a pool to articulate the bitter feelings right after a breakup. The beauty of lyrics like this though is that they never get too wordy, allowing for the possibility of easy dissection and, of course, singalong-y choruses. It’s easy to make catchy, fun music, but I’ve found out that the hardest part about making music like this is conveying genuine emotions to the listener. Tigers Jaw pour out their hearts on this album, truly making the listener believe that what they went through while writing these songs actually happened. They took their own raw emotions and transferred them into relatable songs that are just insanely
fun to listen to. Sure, they didn’t break any boundaries with this album, but to me that doesn’t matter, because all I know is when I listen to this record I’ll enjoy every damn minute of it.
