Takeaways from Bleacher's new album track list
Bleachers just dropped the track list for its fourth studio album, out March 8. Here are my immediate thoughts
Read my full review of the new album
I’ve been a die-hard Bleacher’s fan since high school. I love the cinematic, coming-of-age film quality of the tracks, echoing the likes of Bruce Springsteen mixed with 80s synth pop. Frontman Jack Antonoff has described the message of Bleachers as “celebrating grief.” To me, that’s what the best art is, a bit of sadness mixed with hope.
Personally, I didn’t think the third album Take the Sadness out of Saturday Night lived up to its predecessor Gone Now, one of my favorite albums of all time for its cohesiveness—listening to the album start to finish feels like hearing a story being told.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love TTSOOSN. But while the name implied it was going to align with Bleacher’s central message of finding peace in chaos and love in loss, the album as a whole lacked that punch I felt when I first started listening to the band. There’s a funky beat but no clear message. The songs on their own are good, but the album has its skips. The opening track “91” sounds the most like Gone Now. “Chinatown” as a single with Bruce was perfect, the collab we’d been waiting for. As much as I do love “Stop making this hurt” and “Don’t Go Dark,” I have to admit from a critic’s perspective he was just trying to replicate “Don’t take the Money,” or “Dancing in the Dark” by Bruce.
While I don’t always love Pitchfork’s reviews, I had to agree with one point the site made about TTSOOSN—I think Antonoff has been leaning on his influences, particularly Bruce, too heavily. Gone Now played off the best of an old sound while maintaining originality. “Modern Girl,” which I do love, and maybe now you see why I’m a terrible critic, sounded very Bruce-meets-Billy Joel. Again, it’s fun, but it lacks the depth I always loved about Bleachers.
That all being said, I’m still a massive fan. My biggest hope for this upcoming album is that Bleachers can just be themselves.
Here are my other thoughts on the track list:
“Jesus is Dead” could be a hit or miss
When I saw this track, I shouted “YES” in my brain, because I’m a sucker for a good religious satire. But the more I thought about it, songs commenting on the hypocrisy of religion and its hand in American politics are a dime a dozen. On the other hand, assuming that’s what this song is about is a pretty big leap. It’s possible this song has nothing to do with Jesus at all (Before anyone comes at me, I’m very much aware Antonoff is Jewish). We’ve already established the frontman has an unnecessary dependance on his muses, but this track is definitely one that, without some originality, risks just being noise.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
“The Waiter” is gonna sound like Billy Joel
This is more of a prediction than a takeaway, and I really have little to back it other than I think “Modern Girl” sounded a lot like “We didn’t start the fire” and the “The Waiter” reminds me of “The Entertainer.” Part of me hopes this isn’t the case, because I want to see Bleachers just be Bleachers and not a glorified 70s rock cover band. But the Billy Joel fan in me thinks an Entertainer-inspired track could be really cool.
Who could “Hey Joe” be about?
I’m sure Antonoff knows more than one Joe, but my mind immediately went to Taylor Swift’s ex, Joe Alwyn. We know Antonoff and Swift are good friends. If this is a Joe Alwyn diss track, I would find it funny.