We Were Skeletons – Self Titled

We can argue at length about terminology and timelines and semantics. About useless shit like “first wave” versus “second wave” or where the roots were laid and who the pioneers were. There are plenty of terms and adjectives for the type of music that We Were Skeletons is laying down – and it’s not always favorable. It’s no mystery to me why screamo – that’s the term I’m using, goddamit, and I’m sticking to it – raises such ire in the punk community. There’s frequently an element of preciousness to it, a kind of overblown conceit couched in woefully confusing and metaphor-heavy lyrics (you can blame Moss Iconfor that.) And yes, there’s little worse than some guy getting all breathy and emotive while spouting horrible clichés. And – I’ll go you one more – the music itself frequently seems more an intent to obfuscate melody and create something jarring and, you know, fucked-up sounding, rather than something crafted purely from a place of emotion and communication. It’s easy to see why people’s hackles get raised when it comes to this kind of music, and this is coming from someone who likes the stuff.

Good thing for all of us that We Were Skeletons are pretty decent at what they do.

I mean, they’re playing screamo, right? While they’re doing it well, at their core, that’s what We Were Skeletons is doing here – playing aggressive music couched somewhere between hardcore punk and twinkly, noodling emo. It’s a dichotomy that, when done well, has enough power behind it to move fucking mountains. And when it’s done poorly is enough to illicit actual cringes.

But like I said, they do it well – “This Destroys Us” clocks in at over seven minutes and comes to a quiet finish full of delicate guitarwork and traceries of feedback after a wall of noise and the two vocalists stutterstepping over each other. “Her Stomach Is A Lioness” is a wildly successful instrumental that is made all the more powerful for its brevity, and the intricate musicianship of “Well, I Did Spend A Year In College” reminds me of the less-crazed moments by The Ladderback.

To their credit, We Were Skeletons sound like their own beast. But as far as comparisons go (this is a record review, after all) they seem to fall somewhere between the wall-of-noise approach of Pg. 99 and the midtempo gait of the Shivering. Shit like this is never an exact science, but that’s what I’m hearing. They stumble into a few clichés here and there – the songs titles are just as ironic as all get-out, and apparently have nothing to do with the actual lyrics. But to their credit, the band even manages to sidestep that danger by having lyrics that are actually topical, relevant and – drumroll, please – decipherable.

So yeah, you know what you’re getting here within the first few minutes. It’s either very reliable or entirely lacking in surprises, depending on your viewpoint. But fans of the genre will be more than stoked – these guys are doing what they do with confidence and a surehandedness. Well done.