Why I Hate

Hieroglyphic Transmissions

Written by: PP on 19/05/2011 04:02:36

"These Four Walls Are Yellow Ms. Rigby" is hands down one of the best individual songs I've heard this year. Its "for action action....for action action" repeated lyrics will stick immediately for everyone into the sort of shout-a-long punk championed by the likes of The Menzingers and others like them. It's the opening track to Why I Hate's debut album "Hieroglyphic Transmissions", and though the rest of the album is quite good, it never quite returns to the same gravelly excellence for the remainder of its duration.

Before we get any further, though, a couple of interesting notes about the band. For starters, they have a penchant for ridiculously long song titles like "The Symbol That Is Sewn, It's Not Who I'm Known To Be" or "As I Walk Through The Valley And The Shadow Of The Fire Swamp", but they also have an anti-band to themselves called Why I Hope. It consists of exactly the same members playing the very same songs, except they've been re-arranged into a more optimistic folk punk format instead as a bonus disc to this release (think Chuck Ragan). You don't see that every day, eh?

Anyway, after the up-beat opener puts you in a great mood, the band gradually shifts their sound towards a darker and more desperate one, as best seen on "This Was My Wish And It Didn't Come True, So I'm Taking It Back". It has a similar repeat-lyric dynamic as the opener with its "this is my breakdown, breakdown...this is my breakdown", except it sounds despaired and deeply emotional, like it's coming from a very, very dark place within the band. It's still a good song, but one is left wondering how much better everything could have sounded had the back stayed with the more melodic and cleaner sound of their opener.

Track nine "Music, Fakes The People, Come To Get Her" changes sound yet again, this time recalling the gravelly original post-hardcore of Small Brown Bike and Jawbreaker. It's one of the highlights on the record, once again suggesting that Why I Hate are much better off staying melodic and bright, instead of the saddened and aggressive stance that they take for the majority of the album. But with all things said, you can't call "Hieroglyphic Transmissions" a bad album. It struggles with some odd stylistic choices but the songs are still all decent. Just not much more than that.

Download: Free download!
For the fans of: The Menzingers, Captain, We're Sinking!, Small Brown Bike
Listen: Myspace

Release date 15.02.2011
Death To False Hope Records

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