When letlive. initially released ‘Fake History’ in 2010 they were in danger of becoming also-rans in a post-hardcore revival that had seen the likes of Defeater and Pianos Become the Teeth become critical darlings. Their third album wasn’t expected to make much of an impact, but make an impact it did.
A year later it was re-released on Epitaph and letlive. had leapfrogged the competition to become arguably the biggest act of all their contemporaries. ‘Fake History’ was not just a brilliantly off the wall record, it was also a brilliantly accessible one.
‘The Blackest Beautiful’, perhaps unsurprisingly, leans more towards the latter of those two points. ‘Fake History’ rightly saw the band compared to Glassjaw and Refused, but ‘The Blackest Beautiful’, while retaining those influences, swings things in a far more pop-oriented direction than before.
This is largely due to the extra prominence attached to vocalist Jason Aalon Butler, whose voice is pushed right to the front of the mix throughout. The liberal use of vocal effects and the odd burst of Zack de la Rocha make opener, and lead single, Banshee (Ghost Fame) an intoxicatingly sugary offering.
In a sense, ‘The Blackest Beautiful’ is a shinier, more streamlined take on ‘Fake History’ and the choruses dominate the action on tracks like Empty Elvis and Younger. This works out fine most of the time but, with the more esoteric, and, incidentally, more memorable, elements of the band’s sound often bypassed, you’ll be hard pressed to remember much about That Fever Fear or The Priest and Used Cars.
The shift towards a cleaner, more straightforward letlive. works better than it should, though. This is clearly Butler’s band and his ability to pen naggingly catchy vocal lines is evident throughout ‘The Blackest Beautiful’. Musically there are occasional moments of interest, such as the unexpected spoken word breakdown on closer 27 Club or the appearance of acoustic guitar on Virgin Dirt, but predominantly this is an album dominated by catchy, hard-hitting post-hardcore at its most digestible. The riffs are direct punches to the gut and the song structures often feel like means to an end rather than being something of interest in their own right.
Rather than looking at this cynically, as many will no doubt choose to, it would be best to applaud letlive. for accepting their strengths. The odd diversion into experimental territory aside, this is a fine selection of well-crafted, immensely listenable songs. Let’s face it; the songwriting is what made ‘Fake History’ the record it was, and the same thing ensures that ‘The Blackest Beautiful’ is likely to become one of the biggest punk albums of recent times.
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