Touché Amoré: Spiral in a Straight Line

It was Christmas. A holiday I celebrate only because Ms. Hipster does. Not that Christmas isn’t lovely, but it’s just not my holiday. Somehow we went from Christmas music to klezmer music (because Hanukkah) and then the DJing started. Eventually I worked my way to “Hal Ashby” by Touché Amoré because I’m kind of a dick. And I figured enough with the lovely singer-songwriter stuff everyone else had been requesting. I’m throwing some post-hardcore into the mix just to get people hyped. Or offended. Turns out it barely made a blip. In fact, Ms. Hipster thought it sounded like something super mainstream that I can’t recall. And I swear Hipster Jr. Jr. said something about Phil Collins. Maybe? I was confused and distraught. My idea of “hard” is completely off.

So, raw-throated, screaming vocals doesn’t equal frightening. I have to look past it — and didn’t figure my family could. Turns out their imaginations are more evolved than mine. Because now I listen to “Hal Ashby” with the sandpaper vocals removed and it’s a pretty standard rock song. The chord progression and the production are actually relatively standard and lovely. Not aggressive at all, really. The only real hardcore in the post-hardcore comes from Jeremy Bolm and his vein-popping vocals. Sub in a more tuneful, melodic singer and you might have something more akin to a more muted midwestern emo swirl of Fender Jazzmasters. In fact, the music itself is relatively unremarkable. It’s decent, but really gets pushed back in the mix compared to Bolm’s vocals. I would say he carries the melody, but there’s not a ton of melody in his “singing.”

Despite this push-pull of the swirling softness of the music and the staccato vocals, there is something compelling in the overall package. They play off each other well. The music a bed on which the screaming bounces and parries. I don’t have any history with the band, but this being their sixth album, I imagine they’ve gone through some sort of maturation process over the span since their debut. So perhaps their music used to be more angular, more hardcore. Maybe a time when they wouldn’t have guest artists on their album like Lou Barlow and Julien Baker. Including having Barlow co-write a song, “Subversion (Brand New Love),” which sounds exactly like a collab between the band and a weird, lovelorn Sebadoh tune. On Baker’s track, “Goodbye for Now,” Bolm even dials back the gravel a bit as a lead in for Baker’s more ethereal lilt. A good ending tune for a really decent album that doesn’t necessarily break new ground, but certainly makes a case for adult post-hardcore made by adults about adult stuff.