Alkaline Trio – My Shame Is True

Let’s face it Alkaline Trio will never release another Maybe I’ll Catch Fire, Goodmouring or even Crimson. And that’s okay. However 2010’s This Addiction just wasn’t the showcase of the pretty great band Alkaline Trio once was. 2011’s follow up Damnesia, a sort of greatest hits go acoustic collection, was a nice in-betweener but by 2013 anyone into Alkaline Trio was looking forward to new good material from what once was one of the best punk trio’s in today’s scene.

And here it is, the ninth studio album My Shame Is True. Recorded by Bill Stevenson and with guest vocals by Tim McIlrath (Rise Against) and Brendan Kelly (The Lawrence Arms). So is it a return to form? The record fans have been draining their blood and popping their suicide pills over? Yes it is.

The record is of to a good start with the uptempo ‘ She Lied To The FBI’, followed up by one of those typical great Matt Skiba songs ‘I Wanna Be A Warhol’ (watch the amazing video from that song starring actress Milla Jovovich). From there the band goes in familiar territory using 50’s horror imagery, skulls and bones to bring some new highlights to the songbook of miserable romanticism.

If anything ‘Kiss You To Death’ is one of the best macabre love songs anyone has written since… the last time Alkaline Trio wrote such a song. The trio really is in great shape on My Shame Is True. The music is less pretentious and more back to punkrock roots without being a rehash of the most early Alkaline Trio records. I can even forgive them for the way too obvious Coldplay parts on ‘Only Love’.

Anyone who ever regretted getting the Alkaline Trio heart and skull tattooed on their body should definitely check out My Shame Is True. You’ll be showing off that tattoo with pride once again.

You can stream the whole record here:

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