Album Reviews

- by Tom Dumarey

We have had to wait six long years for the follow-up to ‘Home,’ but the new Off With Their Heads album has finally arrived.

While the band’s older material dealt almost exclusively with moping around and feeling sorry for yourself, the eleven songs that make up ‘Be Good’ center more around the theme of forced acceptance. According to frontman - and sole perpetual member - Ryan Young this one is more about ‘accepting how goddamn miserable you are’. Which explains the long wait in between albums.‘Not being on the road 250 days a year, actually trying to develop some sort of life outside of playing shows and drinking, you’d be surprised what that does,’ he says.The mere fact that an Off With Their Heads is non-ironically called ‘Be Good,’ is pretty telling in that regard.

Other than this newfound slightly more positive outlook on life, things haven’t changed all that much. The band’s take on melodic gruff punk is still very much there as are Young’s gritty barks. And it has never sounded better than on ‘Be Good,’ an album that also comes with a nice flow. While some of that can no doubt be attributed to the fact that Young has grown as a songwriter, this album also marks the first time that Young enjoyed producing. Something that he pretty much hated in the past.

It may have taken Young a long time, but ‘Be Good’ is the band’s strongest release to date and well worth the wait.

Track listing:

1. Disappear
2. Be Good
3. You Will Die
4. No Love
5. Take Me Away
6. Tear Me Apart
7. Trash It
8. Let It All