To send off No Skips for the time being since the semester is ending, let’s conclude crazily like the punk rock band Jawbreaker in 1996. After the release of “Dear You” in 1995, the topic for today, frontman Blake Schwarzenbach and bass guitarist Chris Bauermeister had a physical altercation that broke apart the band for the following two decades. Despite this turmoil, the boys churned out a consistent set of songs on “Dear You” that I’d like to discuss.
With its title, the album can be symbolically interpreted as a letter to someone, as the “you” is ambiguous in this context. I bring this up because the first tracks are directed toward potentially different people or groups, especially with the introduction, “Save Your Generation.” Calling out our tendencies to criticize others at a moment’s notice instead of ourselves, Schwarzenbach puts an agency on the listener to better themselves and lead others to do the same. I also love the clean break into the chorus which turns out to be quite punchy and memorable with lines like “Survival never goes out of style.”
Track two, “I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both,” compelled me to review this record. Schwarzenbach ditches the inspirational tone of the last track in favor of frantic desperation. As a callback to the previous track, he laments, “How can I save you when I couldn’t save a dime?” while he claims he wants “a life without parties” just to stay with this person and stay grounded. Drummer Adam Pfahler goes to town throughout and really shines in the lead-up to the chorus, and it’s cool that the band can conjure up such a hype tune even with Schwarzenbach’s vulnerability in the lyrics.
“Fireman” begins immediately grungier than the preceding tracks, though its intensity is reeled back sonically, but not so much lyrically when Schwarzenbach dreams of morbid stuff. The multiple changeups in the chorus are immaculate, and overall, this song’s structure will be sure to keep you on your toes. “Accident Prone” takes the grunge up a notch and was likely divisive back in the day when fans weren’t expecting such melodic tracks from the boys, yet his intonation when singing is interesting. I swear he was saying “I scratch my ass” in the chorus instead of “accidents,” but that may be due to the instruments dominating the mix; I’m not sure.
Schwarzenbach’s cadence in the verses of “Chemistry” is impossible not to hum to — he’s defiant as all hell. Loosely based on high school life, the speaker alternates between exuding confidence and feeling self-conscious, like on the absolute bar, “I smoke a lot but can’t get laid.” If the charts were more favorable to them, I could see this operating the same as Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” for a different generation, but we’re in this timeline, unfortunately. “Oyster” is only two-and-a-half minutes long, has a bridge and still feels drawn out. You would think this would be more of a layered song given its title, but it’s one where they lose touch of their edge.; It’s passable, nevertheless.
“Million” picks the pace back up, where the guitar work stands out and Schwarzenbach delivers the best melodic vocals on the record so far. Segues into the “Take me to the pretty ones” section keeps the four-minute-and-20-second song feeling fresh and holds the listener’s engagement at the midpoint of the album. “Lurker II: Dark Son of Night” is criminally underrated for its energy and ferocity from Schwarzenbach. Once again, I commend his ability to mix brutal honesty into such a balls-to-the-wall song with lyrics like “Hook up the Sega / Have sex alone.”
Vocal samples of Christopher Walken on “Jet Black” thankfully don’t overstay their welcome, unlike many songs on Manic Street Preachers’ “The Holy Bible,” a similar album to “Dear You” that I may write about one day. Most of the five-minute song is more subdued than your average song here, though there is a sort of build-up around the four-minute mark. Deeming the song a slow burn is fitting given Walken’s vivid description of a car crash during the second sample.
“Bad Scene, Everyone’s Fault” is a potent cut in the lyrical vein of “Chemistry” where the speaker is at a house party gone wrong. I generally don’t enjoy punk, and this is one of those instances where Schwarzenbach’s vocals are a little too effortless, yet once again, it’s over in the blink of an eye. I’m not going to recite the Genius annotations to you on “Sluttering (May 4th)” — you read that right — but one could probably write an essay on the various interpretations the song has to offer. Sonically, it’s a standard track for Jawbreaker besides the anthemic chorus, so I hope they got to play this one at a few shows before they broke up.
“Basilica” takes its time considering two minutes pass by before anything remotely explosive takes place, but that’s not necessarily a bad characteristic of the album’s second-to-last song. Schwarzenbach lays it all on the line, gloomily remarking, “In the pew, head down I’m crying / I think you have thoughts of dying.” The majority of the song passes by before we hear some more technical guitar playing as part of the two-minute vocal-less closing section. Finally, the largely acoustic “Unlisted Track” makes me wish the singer pursued more of a solo career after the dissolution of Jawbreaker and his other ‘90s group, Jets to Brazil, because he’s an impressive poet and sounds so down-to-earth when it’s just his voice without drums.
I forgot how I found this album even though it’s decently popular, but this is the only Jawbreaker project I’ve listened to in full. As with other albums and bands I cherish, I want to slowly consume their discography to savor their limited output, and if you find groups that aren’t operating at full force anymore or are defunct, I recommend you do the same. Regardless, there’s always more music out there to find, and I’m appreciative of those who have reached out thanking me for coverage of their favorite records that aren’t discussed enough. I’m also thankful to have brought exposure to albums you don’t hear about every day, so don’t be afraid to share your interests with those you care about during this winter season. Anyway, for now, I’m out!