Alkaline Trio – Crimson

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Crimson had all the makings of a big rock record. It had great production (courtesy of Jerry Finn), larger than life art and imagery in the music videos and record packaging, a great narrative throughout the album, and improved songwriting from Alkaline Trio. So it comes as a bit of a surprise that this classic record didn’t get certified as gold by the RIAA. Crimson was the fifth studio album from Alkaline Trio, and would be the last time that the band would work with Jerry Finn before he passed away in 2008. The set would spawn three singles in “Time To Waste”, “Burn”, and “Mercy Me” and the album is still adored by many Alkaline Trio fans and even casual fans who got wind of the music through compilations and more. The album was recorded at Conway Studios in Los Angeles, California and even had an early album title of Church and Destroy. The band would continue to gain a loyal following of fans in key support tours with My Chemical Romance, Rise Against and others during the promotional period of Crimson. The LP still holds up to this day with its slick songwriting, big hooks, and a stellar vocal performance from Matt Skiba.

The album sets off with an eerie piano sound on the lead single of “Time To Waste” that builds up to a pulsating bass line from Dan Andriano before Skiba adds his vocal croon to the opening lyrics of, “There’s someone down below blowing you a kiss / They watch from their windows / As all arms fall to their sides, and all eyes fix / On the death of tomorrow / And you found everything you need / To make a life complete / Completely revolting, and they have safety and relief / For sale up the street / I see you in line every day.” Skiba remains captivating in his delivery of this rich lyrical poetry and the band rallies around his every word. “The Poison” follows with a spiraling riff from Skiba, while Andriano takes the lead vocal duties on this track with veteran ease. The speedy punk rock track accelerates to the finish line, while drummer Derek Grant adds in some nice fills.

”Burn” was a key single from the set that slow-builds to the chorus over some unique synths, production tricks/elements, and heavy riffing by Skiba. The chorus of, “Intending to burn, pretending to fight it / Everyone learns faster on fire / Things took a turn, lost all desire / You live and you burn,” is well-constructed and showcased the continued improvements in Alkaline Trio’s songwriting craft. “Mercy Me” was the second single to be released from the album and it features a steady beat from Grant while Skiba and Andriano carefully croon and harmonize together over the mix in a style that would make bands like The Cure proud.

The middle section of the record never sags under its own weight with great deep cuts like “Dethbed” that invites audience participation, while “Settle for Satin” is largely built around the unique guitar riff from Skiba to set the tone of the song. “Sadie” was one of the first songs the band for Crimson, and as Skiba recalls, “We were still touring on our previous record and I wrote it just on tour. We started playing it at soundcheck and we had planned to do this split with One Man Army at BYO. That’s where that song came from originally. But we knew even then that we were probably wanting to re-record it and putting it on an album, which it was on Crimson later. So yeah, I think that came from knowing that we were starting to write a new record and wanting to take a different approach. As I said before, you don’t ever want to write the same record twice. So yeah, I think it was just a fresh start and it just had a different kind of feel and sort of set the tone for Crimson, not that there is other songs like it on the record.” The band’s unique approach to Crimson pays off widely on songs like this.

”Fall Victim” gets back to the speedy punk rock that dominated the sound of Alkaline Trio in their early years, and the band has no trouble keeping up with the uptempo track. “I Was A Prayer” was the only song that I didn’t really connect with on my re-listen to Crimson, but the band regains my interest strongly on “Prevent This Tragedy.” It’s on this latter song that Alkaline Trio were beginning to truly understand what made their band unique, and they went full in on this vibe.

”Back To Hell” is the logical sister-song to “Fall Victim,” but it never feels out of place in the sequencing. The band knows just when they need an up-tempo song to prevent the listening experience from feeling monotonous. The closing duo of the great “Your Neck” and “Smoke” rounds out Crimson in the best way to the finish line. On “Your Neck,” Alkaline Trio admit on the opening chorus, “We’re the things that go bump in the night that you can’t see / Yeah, we’re the mishaps that always happen in threes / This ain’t no rocket science, no big mystery / Why the light of day that’s shown to us / Is absolutely meaningless to me.” “Smoke” is a unique closer, with its eerie vibe and sweeping synths. Andriano admitted, “For the two years before we recorded it, I had been kind of toiling over this. It was kind of the bane of my writing existence. It scared me, because I knew I liked parts of it but was really unhappy with other parts. I couldn’t make the vibe work.” The song does a sound a bit out of place, so maybe that’s why Alkaline Trio felt like it made the most sense to tack it to the end of the record as a bit of symbolism for uncertainty of where they would take their sound next.

Crimson remains a hard-hitting record that is rich in lyrical imagery, great harmonized vocals between the vocalists, while leaving just the right amount of allure/mystery as to what the band were singing about. It’s really hard to believe that this album has turned 20 years old, as it still feels remarkably fresh today.

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