AFI's Crash Love

Two song into AFI's eighth studio album, and I can already hear the critics: "It's nothing like their old stuff." Well, boys and girls, it's called growth. Yes, Crash Love is an insanely poppy title for an old-school, hard core East Bay punk band like AFI. Yes, the tracks on Crash Love are very melodic; songs you will actually sing along with, not just shriek. But Adam Carson is still solid on his skins, the punk beat is still heavy in the songs. Davey Havok's voice is still unmistakable. Jade Puget's guitar still screams where screaming is appropriate, hums softly where it's not. Even without buying the album, anyone vaguely familiar with the band will recognize the tracks.

That's not to say that the buying the album is not necessary. It got me moving to songs I didn't know. To songs that I hadn't even heard in their entirety. By the end of songs, I was singing along with choruses I had only just learned. Too Shy to Scream is dancingly reminiscent of an era of punk that many forget when chastising a band or a song or an album as not "real punk" - the era of the Ramones, followed closely by names like NOFX, No Use for a Name, and the Dead Kennedys. It may be a bit hasty of me, having only taken one journey through the album so far, from beginning to end, but Too Shy to Scream may well be my favorite track.

Even though the melodies and beats are noticeably lighter and more up-tempo than the band's more recent Sing the Sorrow and Decemberunderground, the message in the songs still carries the same darkness as the previous ten years (Yes, kids, young and old, it has been a full decade since Black Sails in the Sunset hit the shelves of your local Sam Goody store. Can you believe it? Where were you then?). Many fans have admitted to physically shuddering at the announcement of an album about the dangers and perils of a Hollywood life and the paparazzi, after two albums all about the cycle of life, death and the afterlife - I was one of them - but I have to say I am loving every note. The darkness, the brooding that has child psychologists warning against suicidal teen fans is still in the lyrics, still in the message.

And the music, albeit different from what fans are likely expecting, is still just as incredible as it has been for the last decade and a half. Skeptical as I, admittedly, was, I am not disappointed. If you are a fan from "way back," buy Crash Love. Keep an open mind, think of the influences that have brought us to this point. If you are a new fan, buy Crash Love and listen with all your new, wide-eyed ability to love it.