With 2006's Decemberunderground, A.F.I. proved that no matter how many fans they alienate by forsaking their SoCal punk origins and being horrible, there will always be a fresh crop of mopy teenagers to purchase anything soaked in melodrama and eyeliner. But when dumped, do hardcore kids not cry? When anguished, do emo kids not throw furniture through the windows of their respective Denny's? Are we really all so different? Can't we all agree that Crash Love is A.F.I.'s triumphant rock-and-roll redemption?
Perhaps I'm merely fawning over a band I loved when I was 17 and brainless, but that doesn't make me totally wrong here. Crash is easily A.F.I.'s best since 2003's Sing the Sorrow, and the cheeky pop-punk chorus of "Too Shy To Scream" is their first successful decree to boogie the night away.
The dark-wavy "Veronica Sawyer Smokes" is dissing Winona Ryder (I think), and way-paranoid lyrics like "Don't speak . . . they've been recording all we say," from "It Was Mine," seem like a slag against social networking. Oh, how A.F.I. love to bite the hand that feeds. First they alienated hardcore kids; now they're alienating the Internet.
