Until
I entered my junior year of high school, my chances of accessing new forms of
music were remarkably slim. Unless one of my friends brought home a new CD or I
was sneaky enough to watch VH1 in the early mornings when my parents weren’t
around, it was quite unlikely that I would hear anything outside of a
radio-friendly format. But when I was fourteen, the gods of music took pity on
me, and my family received a free promotional DVD in the mail loaded with
alternative music. Amongst a pile other alternative and indie tunes, this disc
included the video for “Reinventing Your Exit” by Underoath, my first ever
exposure to screamed vocals.
Though
I didn’t quite get the style of music at the time, the catchy yet abrasive
chorus held fast to my memory until I couldn’t get it out of my head. My love
for that song has remained since, but until very recently, I had somehow failed
to get my hands on any of Underoath’s full records or further explore their
catalogue. Yet after seeing their long history as labelmates with Norma Jean
(not to mention Timothy McTague’s writing credit on Redeemer), I finally picked up a copy of They’re Only Chasing Safety to determine whether Underoath was as
intense and interesting as my first impression had left me believing.
As
I would soon come to find, They’re Only Chasing
Safety is hardly representative of this band’s overall sound, largely
because of its foray into the territories of pop-punk and alternative rock. But
regardless of genre labels, Underoath throws a lot of power into the ten songs
on this record. The energetic and noisy riffing of guitarists Timothy McTague
and James Smith drives every song into a ferocious whirlpool that is controlled
only by the expert drumming of Aaron Gillespie. Lead vocalist Spencer
Chamberlain, who makes his Underoath debut on this album, definitively marks
his territory with throaty, desperate screams, a terrifying counterpoint to
Gillespie’s soaring vocals. Although much of their sound is focused through a
lighter lens, a product of what Spencer sheepishly labels “what we were into at
that time,”[1] there
is no shortage of the gritty, dissonant tone that previously defined Underoath
either—Aaron rides the double-bass in “The Impact of Reason,” while both “I
Don’t Feel Very Receptive Today” and “It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door” are built around darkly-colored chord progressions and palm mutes.
There
is no shortage to vivacious performance on this record, but where Underoath
really shines is in their songwriting. They’re
Only Chasing Safety is spilling over with cool decisions and technical
prowess, all of which is perfectly blended under catchy hooks and infectious
grooves. “Down, Set, Go” features seamless transitions between 6/4 and 4/4
time, while in “The Impact of Reason,” the band alternates between 6/4, 4/4,
and even 7/4 without blinking. Many of the songs also feature intricately
crafted structures that opt against the standard verse-chorus-verse feel for a
more fluid shape. Songs like “It’s Dangerous Business Walking out Your Front
Door” and “A Boy Brushed Red…Living in Black and White” alternate between
multiple hooks without settling on one, while “Young and Aspiring” and “I Don’t
Feel Very Receptive Today” avoid a repeated chorus completely. And when the
hook seems too good to ignore, like in “I’m Content with Losing,” Underoath
makes sure you’ll be singing it for weeks.
From
the opening noise of “Young and Aspiring” to the fading harmonics of “Some WillSeek Forgiveness, Others Escape,” it’s very clear that Underoath has invested
more than just time into making They’re
Only Chasing Safety sound incredible. Their bolder choices, such as
slipping electronic beats and samples in against heavy guitar riffing, mark
them as an audacious bunch and give the record some real character; however,
these also make those compromising or weak decisions painfully apparent. The
mix of the record pushes the guitars to the very front of the mix, leaving
Grant Brandell’s bass all but drowned in the treble, and unless the keys are
taking the lead, Christopher Dudley receives much the same treatment.
In
comparison to the awesome arrangements, much of the lyrical content feels
largely like an afterthought. Although good ideas from a writer’s standpoint do
appear, such as using similar images across multiple songs, the execution
leaves the overall expressions feeling contrived. Many songs feature imagery of
suicidal thoughts or actions, but lines like “I feel like cutting it open
tonight…and falling on the floor” from “I Don’t Feel Very Receptive Today” are
so blatant that any cry for help is lost in a whine.[2]
Similarly, the massive range of emotion locked in the idea of a break-up is
hardly even approached in the chorus line of “It’s Dangerous Business Walking
Out Your Front Door:” “My knuckles have turned to white / There’s no turning
back tonight / Kiss me one last time.”[3]
And when a meaningful image or idea does somehow find its way to completion,
like the line “Feeling free is our modern disease / You’re a classic disaster”
from the album’s opening track,[4]
it is quickly surrounded by pithy or faulty writing which prevents any
interesting idea from fully taking root.
Lyrically,
They’re Only Chasing Safety misses
much more than it hits, but the emphatic, intermixing vocals of Spencer and
Aaron give even their frail writing a ton of vitality. The nature of
Underoath’s vocal performance relies on the fact that they “[put] so many
vocals in the songs that there’s no way for one person to have the breath to do
it.”[5]
This juxtaposition of vocals sung and screamed is what initially pulled me in,
and no tune provides a better example than “Reinventing Your Exit.” Aaron’s
emotive verse melodies wind the song’s energy up, giving Spencer a pent-up ball
of fervor to detonate as he hits the chorus. Despite being Dallas Taylor’s
final writing credit with the band, Spencer unequivocally conquers the song
with his violent shout of “You’ve got me up against a wall.”[6]
The way both vocalists intertwine their parts to the point of sharing sentences
is already extraordinary, yet somehow they find room to intermingle with the
countermelodies and flourishes of Chris Dudley’s keys, weaving “Reinventing
Your Exit” into a treble tapestry that leaves me in awe after each listen.
Ups
and downs aside, to me, it is very evident that They’re Only Chasing Safety is an honest creation of a band still
reeling from lineup changes and new directions. As Tim McTague puts it, the
goal has always been to “do things right [and] do things honestly;”[7]
for this record, the decisions that work do so exceptionally, because they are
rooted in the pure intentions of a band trying to do what they love. In an
interview with EuroPunk, Spencer
remarks of the simplicity of their writing process: “We lock ourselves in a
room and [Underoath is] what happens,”[8]
and for all the pressures against Underoath at the time, the things that happen
on They’re Only Chasing Safety are
pretty damn impressive. Though I am not intellectually stunned, the sheer
energy and catchiness of these ten tunes have already hooked me, and get me
beyond excited to dive headfirst into the rest of their catalogue.
Tunes to Check Out:
1) Reinventing Your Exit
2) I'm Content with Losing
3) Down, Set, Go
