Review Summary: Touché Amore bow their heads and leave out the back.
‘Lament’, the newest album from post-hardcore act Touché Amore, could arguably be their most outspoken work as a group that seems to be clearly focused on brightening up their sound. In fact, the only tracks on here that retain a semblance of Touché’s abrasive early career are the opener, “Come Heroine”, with vocalist Jeremy Bolm’s largely improved screaming and the dense, angry pairing of “Exit Row” and “Savoring”.
That being said, the rest of this album does have a very keen sense of cohesion. None of the songs feel out of place, and the tracklist is ordered in such a way that gives way to some very, very nice pacing. Touché Amore have arrived at the stage of their career where they know exactly where to go to craft the album that they want to hear, and how to get it done on their terms.
It really is a shame to see such a refining of their process, because ‘Lament’ is actually the worst album the band has released thus far into their career. By a long, excruciating mile. The band veers into some of the blandest pop-punk territory in recent memory with the tracks “Reminders” and “I’ll Be Your Host”. They mindlessly wander through “Lament”, “A Broadcast” and “Feign” with yawn inducing riffs and boring vocals. What really blows my mind is that they worked with producer Ross Robinson (Korn, Glassjaw, The Blood Brothers) and the result is a completely boring and muddy mix.
Somehow, guitarists Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt have found a way to even further simplify and sterilize a sound that had already begun to lose any semblance of originality and dynamic on their previous album, 'Stage Four'. Now, they've never been the most technical musicians, but at least with 'Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me' and 'Is Survived By' they had some grit to throw at us. 'Honest Sleep' or 'Home Away From Here', this is not. Drummer extraordinaire Elliot Babin is also criminally underused on 'Lament', unfortunately.
Still, one could argue that a lot of people listen to Touché for Jeremy Bolm’s complete transparency in wearing his slightly wordy heart on his sleeve and his tense screams. Without a doubt, Bolm is this album’s biggest strength and its biggest weakness. The strength lies in his screaming. It is way more raw and powerful than on any of the previous albums – perhaps a single positive result of working with Robinson, who is known for getting dramatic performances out of the vocalists he works with – and he tears through the brief moments of pure anger on this album with finesse.
Unfortunately, the fantastic harsh vocals on this album are completely overshadowed and sapped of any long lasting intrigue because they’re more often than not fused with his completely awful attempt at clean singing. He. Cannot. Sing. Not even a little bit.
What really seals this album’s fate is the closing track, “A Forecast”. Not only is the climax forgettable, but the piano driven intro features a 100% clean vocal performance from Bolm – and it is absolutely god awful. Not only is his singing laughably bad, but the lyrics are so incredibly cringe-inducing and could honestly be described as musings from someone who is 37 (Bolm’s actual age) going on 15. I’ll let them speak for themselves.
“Since the last time we spoke
I’ve learned quite a lot
The people I thought would reach out
Turns out they would not
On the anniversaries
Of the worst kind of days
My phone was mostly silent
One excuse was giving space
It’s not like I wrote some lyrics
Detailing the exact events
Some profit off the album
Most I just consider friends
But that’s the way it goes
I’ve healed more than suffered
I’ve found the patience for jazz
I still love the Coen Brothers
I’ve lost more family members
Not to cancer but the GOP
What’s the difference, I’m not for certain
They all end up dead to me
So here’s the record closer
Still working out it’s intent
I’m not sure what I’m after
But it couldn’t go left unsaid”
