Review Summary: I'm throwin' out a Hail Mary.
Somewhere along the road, The Early November faded into the background of a scene where they should have been centre frame. Your favourite pop-punk band's favourite pop-punk band have done it all: come out swinging with the classic youthful-raw EP/album; outstripped every other band in the genre in ambition with a triple album which beat
The Black Parade to the punch by six whole months; broke up enough times and lost enough members to rock any band's confidence only to stage a comeback that should've left any doubts in the dust. I really thought The Early November would have their moment in the sun when the superlative
In Currents came out in 2012, a fully cohesive and realised album that updated their sound for the new decade (and Ace Enders' much-improved pipes) without losing a shred of the band's raw essence. But a few years later, Enders was back working behind the scenes, including manning the boards for the majority of Dan Campbell's excellent Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties project, recently concluded.
Those doubts and frustrations about the band not getting the flowers they deserve were the impetus for
The Early November. An attached press release mentions the band continually being passed over for nostalgia festivals like When We Were Young stoking a fire in Enders and drummer Jeff Kummer, the only remaining members, to show what they can really do one more time (any hamfisted blink-182 comparisons go here, or with you to the grave). Says Kummer: "Throughout our entire career, when talking about self-titled albums, we've always been like 'that's the one where you just kill yourself' [ā¦] it's a chip on my shoulder record, but I really didn't want to look back on this and have regrets. And I don't have. It really feels like us."
Twelve years on from
In Currents, twice as long as the original run of the band lasted, this self-titled statement of intent plays as an even more stripped-back and punchy cousin of its 2012 counterpart. It's propulsive and catchy as hell, but lacking in the dreamy experimentation that Enders first toyed with in 2006, before making it into an artform with his fantastic solo endeavour I Can Make a Mess. Heavier bangers "What We Earn", "Tired of Lying" and "The Dirtiest Things", first released solo through Enders' Patreon, are spruced up here with Kummer's drumming and a hint of electronics in the background, although it's hard not to compare and contrast their brittle-sounding mix with the notably tougher sound of similar songs on 2015's
Imbue when the band was a five-piece. More introspective cuts "About Me" and "We Hang On" sit in the same midtempo range as much of
Lilac, with acoustic closer "It Will Always Be" even feeling like a sister song to most recent album
Twenty's opener "Trees". By far the album's best work is a four-song suite named after - why not? - tarot cards, all of which tap effortlessly into that elusive
The Room's too Cold-era energy the band were clearly aiming for here. "The Empress" is a straight hit of dopamine which stands firmly with names like "Narrow Mouth" as one of the band's best openers, where "The Fool" and "The High Priestess" are slower burns which explode beautifully into effervescent hooks, the best usage here of Enders' iconic yearning vocals.
"In the process of making it, I had that mindset of 'If this is it, I'm at least going out speaking my piece'", Enders states about making
The Early November. It's an appropriate mindset for an appropriately self-titled album where the band bared their teeth and set out to prove they can still do this sound better than the competition. It's an admirable target, and one the band hits more than they miss this time around; but you're left wishing for that band who could do almost anything, do it better than anybody else, and do it because sheer creativity and not jealousy was their primary motivator.
