When there is chaos everywhere you look, whenever you read the news and all you see is tragedy and hate, when the cries to stop killing the planet are ignored and when there is a buffoon in charge on both sides of the Atlantic and all you feel is hopelessness, what can you do? Just be good.
This is a mantra Off With Their Heads frontman Ryan Young has recently adopted. A band familiar with wearing their hearts on their sleeves and not afraid of conveying gut-wrenching sentiment onto record, there is a sort of sea change to their fifth studio album ‘Be Good’.
In Young’s own words, he didn’t want to make a record about “moping around and feeling sorry for yourself”, instead this is an almost visceral celebration of learning to deal with anxiety and depression – if there could ever be such a method. However, if you were expecting this change in perspective to provide lyrics a little less bleak, you don’t really know this band at all.
Young’s opening riposte of “now it’s perfectly clear I never should have stayed here, I should have just disappeared” within the first seconds of ‘Disappear’, show a person still grappling with their internal struggles. However, there are notes of personal growth as Young cries out for guidance of “someone please show me the way” on ‘Take Me Away’.
While Young has openly admitted he really doesn’t like how previous records have sounded, Off With Their Heads have consistently produced loud and angry records. The intensity associated with both live performances and in the studio makes them among the more recognised faces in punk rock, and ‘Be Good’ does sound like a band enjoying themselves.
‘Trash It’ provides a grooving riff over the heart-shattering lyrics while ‘Severe Errand’ features a soaring chorus that could even be likened to some of Off With Their Hands’ more poppier output. While ‘Locking Eyes’ delivers an unexpected anthem, ‘You Will Die’ is a swaying slice of classic Young and Off With Their Heads.
‘Be Good’ is still an infinitely bleak album but it feels like one that sits better with Young more than any other. The catharsis of continuing to tackle problems head on and vent them through songwriting and perhaps being more content in his current headspace could mean that ‘Be Good’ isn’t a record he dismisses in the years to come.
When everything becomes more and more desperate, maybe this is the best time to be a cautious optimist and this record may prove to change the outlook for one of punk’s more miserable bands.
TOM WALSH