ALBUM REVIEW: Stay Alive – Laura Jane Grace
2020 has indeed been a peculiar year. Many artists have been forced to change their plans because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura Jane Grace (frontwoman of AGAINST ME!) being no exception. Having already been writing the song for months prior for the new AGAINST ME! album, but with the world ceasing to exist, she felt she had no option but to record the songs as she had done in her home, otherwise claiming that the wait would kill them. After taking action, Laura Jane Grace sat with the end product that is Stay Alive, an album that is set to be the embodiment of its title.
One thing that should be taken into consideration when listening to Stay Alive is that it had every intention of going electric, but the punk edge doesn’t diminish in any way. If anything, the way Laura executes the bite in every lyric, she has made it just as punching as you can imagine it would have sounded as if it had made it as an AGAINST ME! album.
Each track from the melancholic yet upbeat opener Swimming Pool Song, the politically charged folk tinged Hanging Tree to hard-hitting Old Friend (Stay Alive), is effortlessly distinguished from one another, yet carries the same emotional charge. If anything, it leads the example that hope and fear can co-exist together. That you can be frustrated and angry at the world and everything in it, but you can still justify a reason to fight for your place in this life. To perfectly balance those feelings and thoughts into any form of art is unique, and simultaneously a little terrifying for the nail to be hit on the head so consistently.
In some ways, it feels as though Laura Jane Grace has taken her lyricism to another level. Perhaps it’s the fact the album has been taken to the barebones, but each word that rolls off her tongue just sounds as though it has more meaning than ever before. She’s always been known for her no-nonsense lyrics, and Stay Alive is most probably the absolute highlight of that ability she holds when it comes to writing.
At times on the album, Laura‘s voice cracks slightly and it is often when she skips over certain lines that are more emotive than others. To keep this in, as opposed to trying to refine and perfect, is another thing that makes this album more punk rock than anything else right now. Yet, despite being one of the most vocally charged albums Laura has released, she has no airs and graces and takes it in her stride in a surprisingly comforting manner.
That’s probably one of the best words to say about Stay Alive, comforting. Yes, it’s angry, but there’s an escaping catharsis that comes with it and that makes it feel like this enveloping hug, but also has the kick that is needed to get things back into gear. There’s always time to welcome the emotions you’re feeling, but there’s just as much time to fight back in what the world is throwing at you.
Stay Alive is nothing that hasn’t already been aforementioned. It’s without a doubt one of the most raw and real albums that we’ve seen in a long time, and one of the strongest performances from Laura Jane Grace. She has set the world to rights with this album, and displayed an example that holding onto a little pent up frustration isn’t always a bad thing to have. Stay Alive has proven you can make some of the best punk rock with just the bare necessities, that is if you have that fire to fight for what’s right and not be afraid to wear your heart on your sleeve.
Rating: 8/10
Stay Alive is out now via Big Scary Monsters.
