Lighten Up – Absolutely Not

It’s weird, Lighten Up’s new album – Absolutely  Not – is a perfect combination of everything I love; and yet I can’t get into it.

With twelve songs that play through in just over seventeen minutes, Absolutely Not is filled with intensity and power – pulling in memories of classic eighties hardcore bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brainsalong with the new school era of hardcore staples like Paint It Black or Kid Dynamite with some Shook Ones and even some very slight Lifetime tendencies too. The bass is phenomenal (particularly in the opener, Invisible Checks), the vocals are coarse and the lyrics are pointed, there’s the right amount of distortion and feedback (see the bridge and breakdown in Life on Earth); and there’s a sense of urgency pulsating through the record.  It makes Absolutely Not a record steeped in classic eighties hardcore but not to the point where it’s a complete rip off; instead they pull in some of their own elements and make it a bit more modern.  Never is it more evident than in the closing track Personality Implants which plays for just under six minutes (which is saying something considering the first eleven tracks lasted just over eleven minutes total). Filled with low end breakdowns and chugging guitars, Lighten Up slow it down without eliminating any intensity in the closing track and is able to wrap up the album quite nicely (albeit slightly repetitively).

And while all of this should make for a quick record that I devour, something is missing here. There’s very little pull within the songs to keep me coming back for more. The vocals are strong, but never jump out of the speakers at you as they feel too low in the mix and unable to take control of the record.  The instrumentation, while good, becomes the same thing over and over again and the minute-long tracks are too short to truly make an impression.

For straight out hardcore kids, Absolutely Not may be perfect (in fact, I’ll be recommending it to a friend when I next see him) but I can’t help but feel that Lighten Up are missing something here; and I know that I won’t be pulling out Absolutely Not to listen to again for a very long time. There’s just nothing here to make me want to revisit it again; and I can’t figure out why.