Review Summary: I can't relate to other people, I can't seem to find some common ground. I can't think straight in public places, I just keep running my fucking mouth.
If you're unfamiliar with Manners, they're one of the most promising melodic hardcore bands out right now, in a weird timeframe where a lot of melodic hardcore is metalcore-infused and 14 year old girls are begging their mom's for Defeater tattoos. What sets Manners apart from other bands in the scene like More Than Life, Defeater, Counterparts, etc. is that their lyrics are ***ing sadder, and their music is just all around more despondent sounding. It's been this way since their second EP, Apparitions in 2010, but on Pale Blue Light they took it to a whole new level of depression. This album sounds and reads like a suicide note, and to achieve that sonically without ripping off a late '90s/early '00s emo band is pretty impressive.
Manners has something else their peers lack though: they bring the mosh. This album has managed to help me reflect on my cycles of depression almost as much as it's made me accidentally kick my mom in the face when she's sweetly bringing me coffee, bless her heart. She takes it like a champ. Sometimes you just gotta kick things over in your bedroom, you know? But for real: as a person who's clinically depressed and struggling to maintain their mood on a day-to-day basis, this band has become a crutch in trying to break the cycle. The fact that there's music that can reflect the feeling that accurately floors me. This is up there on terms of moving melodic hardcore with Final Fight, early Comeback Kid, Life Long Tragedy, Verse, etc. in my opinion, and that opinion is the right one, so it should be in yours as well.
