The first thing that comes to mind when I review the album “Sing the Sorrow” by AFI is that this is a gutsy release.
One of the tracks is over 17 minutes long. Most bands today hammer out barely two minutes and call it a song. So, from the start, this band seems to be willing to take a risk.
By itself, risk does not make a good album. What AFI does is combine their willingness to be adventuresome with some intense tunes and powerful lyrics.
Let me preface the body of this review by saying that most of the CDs are sent to the Campus Times are horrible.
They are from fifth rate bands I’ve never heard of, and needless to say, it would cause me great pain to listen to them. So it is a rare gem that I find in the pile of review CDs that doesn’t hurt to think about. I mean, it’s not just decent.
Because, really, I have enough music to listen to that just decent doesn’t cut it any more. In order for me to listen to a CD it has to be the sort of album where I put it in the CD player, and actually get excited anticipating the next song.
Since MP3s came about, I listen to fewer and fewer albums, and so the bar has been raised higher and higher for an album to be considered decent.
There has to be a reason to listen to it all together, some sort of overall theme that makes it worth putting the CD in the player instead of just starting the playlist on my computer.
AFI’s album does just that.
The album starts strong, but doesn’t really open up until the third track, “Bleed Black.”
The ordering of tracks couldn’t have been chosen any better. Now, this album isn’t perfect.
It starts to drag towards the middle, and at times becomes almost tedious.
But I don’t want to dwell on the minor distractions, on the whole, the album lives up to itself.
The album is brought back up to snuff by the ironically named “The Great Disappointment,” which segues into a much faster paced “Paper Airplanes (makeshift wings).”
And finally we arrive at the magnum opus of “Sing the Sorrow,” “…but home is nowhere.” This song is the final track, and it is a good note for AFI to end the album on.
The lyrical sensitivity of the band works well with their musical inventions, and the overall experience leaves the listener wanting to play the whole album.
The main problem with the album is that many of the songs in the middle tend to blend together and sound the same. It makes parts of the album seem formulaic at times, which prevents this album from rating as highly as it could have.
Powell can be reached at lpowell@campustimes.org.
