Over the weekend (yes Friday is a day of the weekend) the indie rock band The Front Bottoms released their sixth full length album Going Grey. Even after the past few days of time I've had to take in what was in front of me, I remain as split as I was on my first listen.
I guess as some background, my history with the band starts around the year 2015 when my friend showed me their track Lipstick Covered Magnet, (originally from their 2009 album I Hate My Friends but redone in 2014 for the EP Rose.) After hearing this song and the rest of Rose, I was hooked. I spent the next few months digesting all content related to the band that I could. I can safely say that one of my favorite albums of all time is their 2011 Bar/None Records debut self-titled album The Front Bottoms.
Due to all of this, when the band dropped the first single off the record, Raining on August 24th of this year I was extremely excited. I loved the track, I looped it constantly for a good week after its release. Then the second single, Vacation Town was released. If you could not tell, which you can't because I have not stated my opinion on it yet, I love this song. At the time of writing, I have listened to it 437 times.
The days leading up to the release were excruciating, I needed to hear this album. Finally, October 13th came and I went to listen.
The album starts off with sounds of seagulls and the ocean waves. Soon, a drum slowly kicks in to a serene verse from Brian Sella, the lead vocalist. Here, he begins to talk with a person in his life about his insecurities, eventually realizing that he is mortal. When I initially read the tracklist I was expecting a loud fun opening track with a subtitle like "Holy Fuck," something similar to their 2013 album Talon of the Hawk with the opener Au Revoir (Adios), but this was not the case. The track does pick up a bit towards the end but overall it's quite tame compared to what's expected from previous Front Bottoms endeavors. I've usually skipped this track whenever it comes on, it's just boring for the most part.
1.5/5
The 3rd single for the album was released the day the album was with a new music video. This track has to be one of my favorites on the album, it's full of the charm and wit that I've come to expect from Sella's songwriting. It's only real fault is the repetitive lyrics and while lovable at the same time somewhat trashy "peace sign middle finger" lyric of the chorus. Fantastic track.
4/5
With a title like "Bae," I wasn't extremely excited going into this track. Some of the lyrics read like a justgirlythings image, and that could totally be the intention, but it's just not for me. The repetitive instrumentals and singing of words that vaguely rhyme with "bae" just gets annoying. It's a short song, and when it's over I just wish that I skipped ahead to the next track.
1/5
I fucking love this song. It shows some good old Brian Sella writing with irrelevant references and the subject of cannabis. It's a good, light-hearted, fun track. No matter how many times I've heard it, I'm still not nearly as sick of it as I should be.
4/5
When this song was first debuted live in 2016 as "Tommy," I didn't think a lot of it. After a few listens to it on the full release, I've found it to be one of my favorite songs from the group of all time. It has stupid fun lyrics while still being able to peek more serious topics into the track. Sella's vocal delivery makes me fucking giddy. This is a classic Front Bottoms track. If you do not listen to anything else, please, listen to this song.
5/5
A preview of the chorus of this song was given on social media in the days leading up to the release of the album. The instant I heard it, I needed the full track. Let me assure you, the full song did not disappoint. The melancholic summer vibes the song gives off is enough to make me feel for the characters in this story. Sella does not dissapoint on the vocals department, adding to the feeling. This is a fantastic track.
5/5
Trampoline is an interesting song. It has the classic odd metaphors and lyrics that I became used to on their older material. It reminds me a lot of the song Backflip from their 2013 record Talon of the Hawk, but I can't tell if it's the actual track or the imagery from the music video for Backflip. I don't mind the song, but I can't tell exactly if I like it at the same time. It's a complicated relationship.
3/5
Raining was the first promotional single for the album. It's an overall fun track with an acoustic guitar backdrop and some interesting backing vocals. The songwriting is kind of lacking in some parts, but overall it's a pretty good song.
3.5/5
Initially, I wasn't a very big fan of this one. Eventually, however, I was drawn in by the chorus of which I'm not sure the intended emotion. Eventually the rest of the song helped climb this to one of my favorites. How many times am I going to mention "Classic Sella Songwriting?" This has it. It's probably the last track that does. It's fun and sad and an overall great track to put on whenever.
4/5
This song is... boring. I'm not even sure what I could say about it. It's never grasped me in enough to really care enough to find my feelings. It does some interesting stuff with the Sella's vocals, but other than that the track is pretty boring in most cases of repeating guitar and durms. The hook "can't get happy, can't get sad" is fitting for this track, as I just can't describe how it makes me feel.
2/5
The closing track Ocean is also difficult. The repeated line of "I'm scared to be living by the ocean" is annoying at points. I do really appreciate some sections of the instrumental in the song, and it mostly makes up for the rest of it. There's an entire minute at the end of the track with nearly purely ocean sounds. It's nice, a little nod to the first track's opening, but at the same time it just feel's a little... lazy? I'm not sure how to describe it.
2/5
At the end of the day, like I said in the beginning, I'm split on this album as a whole. I really love the few tracks that I do enjoy, but the rest of the album is just not for me. I'm not here to say "bglbrgb front bottoms sux now shit band sell outs," because that's just not true. Their Fueled by Ramen debut Back on Top after some retrospect was really fantastic. Maybe this album will have the same fate, just going to have to wait it out.
In the meantime, if you're interested, you can listen to the entire album on YouTube right now if you haven't heard it yet.