Hi, everyone. Bigthony Sadtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Touché Amoré record, Spiral in a Straight Line.

Here we have the sixth full-length album from California outfit/rock band Touche Amore. They came together in the late 2000s and then went on to consistently drop very solid and impressive albums in the lanes of screamo and post-hardcore during a time when I think most would consider the golden age of these styles of music to be over. Still, there was something mature, and dynamic, and exciting about many of the albums the band was dropping during this time period. Is Survived By, Parting the Sea, as well as the devastating Stage Four in 2016, a record that was really an intense, genre-defining, catalog-defining peak for the band. And following this, they started to experiment more with writing tunes that, compared to their older stuff, were just more melodic, brighter, slightly more toned down, but still undeniably bringing an alternative appeal. There was also that dramatic Manchester Orchestra crossover on their last record too, Lament.

But yeah, despite the band's best efforts on this one, the results, in my opinion at least, were mixed. Now, going further down the road onto this new record, it seems like Touché Amoré is still very much focusing on broadening its sound and have actually managed to write a few of their catchiest anthemic cuts to date. They also continue flirting with production and instrumental palettes that have a straight-up indie rock appeal, a move that's pretty clearly being just toured toward with guest appearances from Julien Baker, singer-songwriter and also of Boygenius fame, as well as slacker rock legend Lou Barlow, the Sebadoh guy.

But even with the band doing their darndest to switch things up. Some of the most exciting pockets of this record are when they are just going full throttle and giving their all to the record's concept. The main narrative of this album, something that frontman Jeremy Bolm is just a great conduit for as his vocals continue to be so intense and impassioned. But yeah, this record is very much a tale of managing what reads like a combination of depression as well as post-traumatic stress. This is also very much an album about overthinking, not trusting, being plagued with fear, and also desperately searching for some relief from all of these things.

So yeah, the record is very much about that. But simultaneously, it's also about the ways in which life and the world tend to move on and move past you when you are trapped in these feelings. The narrative of this record isn't just merely 1,000 mirrors all pointing inward. Jeremy and company, thankfully, don't lose perspective in this haze of emotions. I mean, in fact, the song "Altitude" is actually about trying to maintain or get even a breadth of perspective in the middle of this flurry, which is what makes the title of this record make sense. It's a spiral in a straight line. Even if you are spiraling, things are still moving forward, as the album's entire story doesn't just merely depict this spiral, but also the complete relationship as a result of it. The various disconnections happening as a result of this are described on tracks such as "This Routine". You also see Jeremy mourning 10 years going into this relationship, essentially getting flushed down the drain on "The Glue". Then on the closing track, "Goodbye For Now", we're holding out hope as well that this dark patch can be moved past, that we can get through it and then eventually come back around once things are fixed to get back together and make things work once more.

So very much a cliffhanger at the end of a very compelling progression. And it's just great to see the band sink back into an album flow that has a bit more of a holistic approach to it, especially considering how well they pulled that off on Stage Four. With all that being said, though, the band on the instrumental side is clearly still trying to celebrate their roots while diversifying their sound and pushing forward, which is proving to be a difficult balancing act. There are tracks on here that, while performed well, feel typical or average by Touché Amoré's normal standards, like the opening track, also the sparkling, tedious, and predictable guitars that paint the start of "Force of Habit" are a bit of a slog and make Jeremy's vocal performance there a tough pill to swallow as the over-the-top performance feels like a bit of a mismatch. Simultaneously, there are moments where the band is in very familiar territory, but they're sounding great in the process, like with the driving punk drums and blistering grim cord changes on disasters. The band also sounds fantastic, delivering this flurry of blast beats and guitars on "Mezzanine", a track that does a great job of encapsulating the lyrics feelings of just dealing with all these crushing and deafening emotions.

And then with the track "Finalist", you are really getting some classic throwback, '90s post-hardcore Fugazi-style, Drive Like Jehu-style. There are also tracks on this record where the band is sweetening their sound, and it really pays off with some incredibly catchy songwriting like on "Hal Ashby" as well as "Altitude". But I will say other attempts at varying things up with a few vocal guests, maybe well-intentioned, but the results are underwhelming as both Julien Baker and Lou Barlow end up at points where their background vocals are just hanging there awkwardly in the mix and feel almost at odds with the rest of everything else going on. While neither of these songs are terrible, in my opinion, I don't think either of their comparatively grand musical ambitions come fully to fruition, even if the way both these tracks contribute to the lyrical narrative of the record is great.

Unfortunately, this record does not end as strong as it starts, but it's still a very thoughtful and impassioned album from Jeremy and company, certainly more solid than their last and one of the best releases you're probably going to hear in this genre in 2024, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong seven on it.

Anthony Fantano. Touché Amoré. Forever.