I know a lot of people are really, really attached to Against Me! and those people while they don't necessarily hate New Wave, they don't love it - preferring the stripped down sound of their early records like Reinventing Axl Rose and As the Eternal Cowboy...
Not me. I happen to like those records fine, but for me if I can only have one Against Me! record, I'm proud to say it's the polished sheen of New Wave every single time.
New Wave is awesome, but it's also stupid. The thing about Against Me! is they cling to their ideals which makes them a "political" band which is fine but it also produces songs with banal lyrics like "Stop/Take some time to think/Figure out what's important to you/You've got to make a serious decision." That a song with those lyrics turns out to be super fucking rad is the perplexity of Against Me!
I want to roll my eyes at how earnest and delusional they can be, but I just can't because the music is too much fun. New Wave always reminded me of one of those early Weezer records. Ten songs in thirty minutes played with abandon and an overwhelming desire to get you jumping up and down. All good things.
I saw Against Me! (I haven't even mentioned the absurdity of the exclamation point yet...just did I guess) twice on this tour and I had never seen them previously. I was amazed to see they smile. A lot. I had thought they were this angry band, but it's the opposite. They were having fun which is exactly what New Wave is for me. It's fun. A lot of fun. And at times, much like a lot of rock 'n roll in 2007, it sounds like Bruce Springsteen.
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