Review Summary: Crash Love is a strange album. Part of you thinks it's one of the most cleverly thought out rock albums you'll ever hear, but part of you thinks it should have come from a completely different band. It's a massive difference from AFI's previous two albums
Decemberundergound was a spooky album and (no pun intended) it gave me chills - one of my favourite albums of all time. Compared to DU, AFI have taken a more conventional, tamer approach to Crash Love. It's works out almost perfectly but what brings it down is the fact that you would be mistaken if it was by a band other than AFI - a band that started out in life as a Hardcore Punk band. It's a massive gamble that AFI have taken to make a more conventional Rock album with styles away from their roots.
Some songs do remind me of Sing the Sorrow, the album that launched AFI into the world of mainstream. Medicate has reminisces of Now the World (One of the STS bonus tracks), Sacrilege loosely reminds me of This Celluloid Dream and It Was Mine is similar to Silver and Cold. There are even some loose relations to DU, in particular Darling, I Want To Destroy You (The Interview). Overall though, Crash Love is a massive departure from the previous two albums. It's a departure that takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it's a very good album from a music point of view. I do wish Crash Love had one or two interludes like STS and DU had.
Jade Puget really shines on this album and the guitar parts are very well put together. Torch Song and Medicate are his best performances on the album with some complex and intricate riffs. The guitar parts and ideas are mixed very cleverly as well with some well placed effects. Jade has gone from strength to strength and has cemented himself as one of the best modern guitarists in rock music.
Davey Havok is renowned for his range, varying between harsh screams, low croons and piercing wails. For Crash Love, his screaming has disappeared completely. Not to worry, plenty of songs feature his trademark 'oh!' and his singing technique is stronger than the previous two albums. Here is where the main weakness of Crash Love lies though, the lyrics; not as haunting as DU and certainly not as unique as STS. Very conventional is how I would describe the lyrics.
Song Summaries...
Torch Song - Fantastic opener to the album. Jade's guitar part is simply epic. The best song on the album. 5/5
Beautiful Thieves - One for the radio! A good track though and probably Davey's best performance on the album. 4/5
End Transmission - Signs of AFI's more conventional side, would work very well as a song for the long car journey. I did actually enjoy this one. 4.5/5
Too Shy To Scream - Catchy, catchy, and have I mentioned, catchy. Doesn't work out too badly but it caught me by surprise when I first heard it. 3.5/5
Veronica Sawyer Smokes - AFI experiments with pop rock. The most different of all AFI songs and one that takes a fair bit of getting used. Good vocal performance from Davey but maybe it's a bit too different. 3/5
Okay, I Feel Better Now - Crash Love takes a calm break with some mellow verses slamming into really anthemic choruses. One of the stronger songs. 4.5/5
Medicate - The closest this album comes to the 'old-school' AFI days. Adam's drumming stands out particularly well here. An unusual coincidence spans from the music video. The video shows the band bleeding gold where 6 years ago, they were Bleeding Black. Ironically, Medicate has similarities to Bleed Black from STS. 4.5/5
I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here - Easily the strangest song on the album, Davey in particular sounds bizarre compared to the rest of the album, like he is putting on a different voice. A little 'Miss-Murdery' in that it is ridiculously catchy. 3.5/5
Sacrilege - Verging on the realms of Pop-Punk. Not a spectacular song by any means but Davey sings well here with some fast melodies. 3.5/5
Darling, I Want To Destroy You - Shades of The Interview from DU and one of Jade's stronger performances with some well placed harmonics and diverse parts. 4/5
Cold Hands - A less electronic version of Love Like Winter, most obviously in the bridge where Jade's guitar cuts out rhythmically. Probably the weakest song on the album. 3/5
It Was Mine - A mash up between Silver and Cold, and Endlessly, She Said. Works very well as an album-finisher. 4/5
Overall, Crash Love is a nice album to listen to and AFI have lost very little of their musicianship that they've always had. The lyrics are a little lackluster and it lacks the variation and diversity between hardcore punk and that STS and DU had - one of my favourite AFI songs is The Leaving Song (Part 1), it's just so unique. I am however looking forward to AFI's next album, which judging from their greyscale teasers, appears like it'll be a very dark album.
