There can be few artists in what I’m going to call the “upper-underground” punk rock scene who divide opinion as strongly as Max Bemis of Say Anything. Even among his own fans, debate rages as to the quality of just about everything the band have released since their 2004 major label début ‘…Is A Real Boy’. Received wisdom states that ‘…Is A Real Boy’ is a work of near-perfection and will never be bettered; die-hards might insist the band evolves and improves with every release.
Like many people, my introduction to Say Anything came via ‘Admit It’, ‘…Is A Real Boy’’s coruscating take-down of poseurs on which the then 20-year-old Bemis venomously spits out borderline beat-poetry about hipster culture before pre-empting any response by turning on himself: “I am shamelessly self-involved… I worry about how this album will sell because I believe it will determine the amount of sex I will have in the future / I self-medicate with drugs and alcohol”.
These themes: the nature of being in a band, Bemis’ self-destructive behaviour and its consequences on his friends and career – whether imagined or real – were a staple of Say Anything’s output. That was until 2012’s patchy ‘Anarchy, My Dear’, on which the rage and self-loathing of previous efforts seemed by turns either absent or forced (‘Admit It Again!’, anyone?); combine these factors with the announcement that their new album would contain no guitars at all fans – myself included – could be forgiven for approaching Hebrews with hesitation.
In case you were worried, an album of ambient electronica this is not. Quite the opposite in fact: the band seem to have set the ‘no-guitar’ challenge as a way to provoke the creative process by writing punk rock songs without hiding behind walls of distortion. The fact that this still sounds unmistakably like Say Anything speaks volumes of Bemis’ auteur-like artistic vision and, of course, his distinctive vocal delivery which at times seems to border on a self-pastiche.
There’s little doubt that the fire in Bemis’ belly is back and burning brightly – only this time the targets are either imagined versions of Bemis’ future self (“My greatest fear,” Bemis stage-whispers on ‘My Greatest Fear is Splendid’, “is an image of a middle-aged me with an earring, playing shows to an empty bar”) or his own fan base and his perception of their reaction to his newfound happiness (‘Judas Decapitation’). Appropriately enough, ‘Judas…’ is probably the most immediately recognisable Say Anything song on the album and one of the few which, despite its lack of an obvious hook, stays with you after the album’s played out.
It’s followed immediately by ‘Call Me Kubrick’, for me the album’s high-point and another instantly familiar wall of sound – orchestral strings may take the place of guitars, but there’s simply no other band who could have produced a track like this. Catchy, energetic and containing a hook based around the lyric “you wear the Swastika”.
Ah yes. The persecution of the Jews. The album’s not called ‘Hebrews’ for nothing: Bemis’ stream-of-consciousness forays into his own psyche are interspersed with lyrical and musical references to the history of the Jewish people. While only the title track directly addresses the topic (“Maybe it was Palestine or that wretched German dwarf who carved the need to self-preserve”) Bemis’ Jewish upbringing, always a huge influence on his art, truly comes to the fore here and while it’s hard not to admire the album’s ambitiousness, the fact is that it doesn’t always work. ‘Hebrews’, the song, degenerates into Bemis doing what sounds like a Mel Brooks impression over a clichéd Yiddish oompah-oompah backing.
Kudos where they’re due: Say Anything have managed to write an album which is truly unlike anything they’ve released before whilst still sounding like the same creative force. Even the love songs (and don’t be fooled by Bemis’ self-proclaimed “beatnik poetry”, ‘The Shape of Love To Come’ is an old-fashioned love song to his wife and daughter) sound nothing like the songs of lust or unrequited passion you’ll find on the average pop-punk release.
“Some say I’ve lost my touch at crafting Say Anything songs,” so runs the opening line to ‘Lost My Touch’. I wouldn’t go that far: these songs could only have been written by one band, or in fact one man, and daring your own fans to hate your new material is a classic Bemis move. No, the songs may vary wildly from downright fantastic to self-consciously arty but the problem here is with the album as a whole. It’s top-heavy with its best material and by the halfway point there’s a distinct sense of running out of steam.
Final track ‘Nibble Nibble’ rescues the whole thing from mediocrity (despite featuring Tom Delonge) but you can’t help but feel that when the album was being sequenced there was a conscious effort to keep one of the better songs for last. I’m certain at least 50% of the people who read this will disagree with every word of it. My favourite songs will be the ones you skip; one person’s self-conscious pastiche becomes another’s ‘return to form’.
In many ways, that’s the beauty of Say Anything: they’re eclectic enough to divide their fans like almost no other band whilst being unique enough to unite us in appreciation. ‘Hebrews’ is undeniably a step up from ‘Anarchy, My Dear’ but those of you holding your breath for another ‘…Is A Real Boy’ had best exhale or, like the man who wrote that album, you’ll cease to exist.