What happens when rock stars grow up? For most punk-rockers, a life beyond sex and drugs is unimaginable, but for Pissed Jeans, sobering up to the realities of suburban soccer games and helicopter parents was essential. Throughout their albums, the band delivered rowdy sounds reminiscent of 80s punk after emerging onto the scene in 2005 with their debut studio album Shallow. Now, almost twenty years later, the band takes on matters of adulthood in an absurdist, sometimes corny, but albeit belligerent album Half Divorced.
The band that hails from Allentown, Pennsylvania approached lyricism in a similar way. On their second and third studio albums Hope For Men and King of Jeans by making seemingly boring topics like ice cream, scrapbooking, and lip rings, into the inspiration for scathing hardcore noise.
The new album begins with single “Moving On,” the band inverses their tendencies towards childish subjects. Frontman Matt Korvette screams “I’m moving on / I’m moving on / I’m moving on” while drummer Sean McGuiness and bassist Randall Huth mash together repetitive melodies, smashing down a beat and strumming husky notes. These lines are very simple, and serve as a testament to the fact that the band is truly “moving on,” from youthful ambivalence and onto mature cynicism. Here, Pissed Jeans sets the stage, the band is leaving total aggression behind, delivering a sound more digestible than previous albums.
Korvette reflects on the issue of debt on the song suitably titled “Sixty Two Thousand Dollars in Debt.” The musicians describe how they are troubled by the same circumstances as the average American over buzzing guitars. It reads as a shallow attempt to relate rather than a true imputation. No one is asking for poetry, but rather something more involved than simply “I pay it down/ So someday I’ll be sixty one thousand dollars in debt/ That’ll be the day I’ll never forget.”
In fact, the on-the-nose writing style the band employed on previous albums falters within this album’s newfound sound that meanders between hardcore and pop punk. Where previous motifs shine through with nonchalance, Half Divorced feels like it takes itself too seriously, if not a little cheesy, such as in the song “Everywhere is Bad.” The band rattles off places and their problems: “New York / The rent’s too high / Los Angeles / Polluted sky.” Regardless of the spirited, clamoring noise, the lyrics in this song were more American Idiot on Broadway and less Minor Threat. Not completely disappointing, just an unexpected turn from a band with such a brutalistic discography.
Pissed Jeans redeems themselves with a cover of the righteously-turbulent hardcore band Pink Lincolns, and their 1993 song “Monsters.” The niche ode to 80s punk that reinvigorates the spirit of hardcore and aligns with the overarching theme surrounding maturation. “Then one day, I found out there’s no monsters/ They’re just lies, to my surprise, no monsters.” It’s a bullseye that deals with growing into adulthood, and realizing that daily afflictions like chores and jobs can terrorize us more than supernatural creatures. Its fast-pace and mean delivery perfectly balance the theme at hand and rock-ethos.
For so long, Pissed Jeans has ridden on minimalist lyricism to emphasize their sound, and this album attempts to convey a more existentialist message. Not always the most philosophical, but consistently brash, the album is a fair continuation of Pissed Jeans’ discography and reminds listeners that there is still something punk about detesting the mundane.
Grade: B