Matt Skiba And The Sekrets

Babylon

Written by: PP on 08/10/2012 18:39:10

Matt Skiba is normally known as one of the enigmatic singers and songwriters for Alkaline Trio, one of the most consistent studio bands in punk rock, but that band's a democracy so if he wanted to make an album exactly like it sounded like in his head, he'd have to go for a solo venture. And that's what Matt Skiba And The Sekrets is all about, even if it has the features of a supergroup considering its lineup includes AFI's Hunter Burgan on Bass and My Chemical Romance's Jarrod Alexander on drums. "Babylon", the sophomore album (if you count the "Demos" album as his solo debut), is the first record to feature these musicians, although Matt Skiba has made all the decisions in terms of songwriting and melodies.

As such, it is unsurprising that the whole ordeal sounds exactly like an Alkaline Trio record. Indeed, songs like "Luciferian Blues", "Voices", or "The End Of Joy" could've easily been on "Crimson" or on "This Addiction" by Skiba's main band, although there are also occasions where Skiba will push his songwriting slightly outside of the Alkaline Trio confines, especially on the more piano/synth/electro backed tracks. But the fact of the matter is that 90% of "Babylon" sounds identical to Alkaline Trio. Just consider this example, where "Falling Like Rain" has literally the same melody as "Eating Me Alive" from 2010's "This Addiction" (start around the 38 second mark on both):

So as you can tell, Matt Skiba And The Sekrets is essentially Alkaline Trio #2 on "Babylon", which leads me to question why he didn't release most of these songs just under the Alkaline Trio moniker? It can't have been that difficult to convince Dan Andriano and Derek Grant" to say OK for these songs with such minor altercations that none us would've ever noticed. Maybe if it had been more than two years since the last Alkaline Trio album it would make sense to give the fans a little teaser of what's to come, but this is not at all different from "This Addiction" and others post-"From Here To Infirmary". The good news is that Alkaline Trio are awesome and rarely write a bad song, so you can expect the standard to be high on "Babylon" as well.

Download: Voices, Luciferian Blues,
For the fans of: Alkaline Trio, Alkaline Trio, Alkaline Trio
Listen: Facebook

Release date 08.05.2012
Superball Music

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