Afi - Crash Love - Music & Performance - CD

2009 release, the eighth full length studio album from the Alt-Rockers. Crash Love is indeed informed not only by the ever-evolving chemistry between the musicians in the band but also by the members' personal lives and, perhaps most of all, by the always intense relationship between A.F.I. and it's fans. While Crash Love is the first A.F.I. record to feature such prevalent sociopolitical and observational perspectives, the darkly personal lyrical strain is distinctly present on standout tracks like 'Medicate' and it's stark portrait of a user/enabler relationship, as well as throughout the ill fated death ride scenario of 'End Transmission.'

Goth-punk firebrands AFI follow up their smash 2006 effort, Decemberunderground, with the propulsive blast of alterna-glam that is 2009's Crash Love. Sticky with epic swaths of melodic rock and just enough swaggering goth-itude to please the emo-tweens, Crash Love is less mannered than its predecessor and reveals a band exploding with a creative power pop and metal spark. Though lead singer Davey Havok's glitter-goth persona is well intact, it seems tempered here with a bit more punkish muscle and '80s pop croon. These songs have madly obsessive hooks along with a sparkling production that never sacrifices the hard rock energy at the core of each song. In that sense, such tracks as "Too Shy to Scream," with its tribal drumbeat homage to Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes," and the swooning romantic anthem "Veronica Sawyer Smokes" come as double ice cream scoops of sugary rock bliss. Think equal parts solo Morrissey and the Raspberries and you are pretty close. Similarly moving is the pyrrhic mid-album rock ballad "Okay, I Feel Better Now," with Havok's cries of "I died for the last lie/And the heartbreak for the first time/I could not take 'til I made you cry." However, AFI are anything but saccharine, and tracks like the epic fist-pumping leadoff single, "Medicate," with its slabs of distorted Jimmy Page-esque lead guitar lines, and the equally blood pressure-raising "I Am Trying Very Hard to Be Here" are both kick-butt rockers and dancefloor-ready rave-ups. Ultimately, AFI have lightened up the band's darkly sexy vibe on Crash Love and delivered a yearning, perfect pop/rock crush of an album. ~ Matt Collar, Rovi

Performer	AFI
Music genre	Rock
Music subgenre	Punk/New Wave
Music release type	Release
Media format	CD
Original release date	2009
Edition	Standard
Language	English
Is collectible	Y
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Series title	A.F.I. - Crash Love [CD]
Track listing	Torch Song, Beautiful Thieves, End Transmission, Too Shy to Scream, Veronica Sawyer Smokes, Okay, I Feel Better Now, Medicate, I Am Trying Very Hard to Be Here, Sacrilege, Darling, I Want to Destroy You, Cold Hands, It Was Mine
Record label	Interscope Records
Track name	Medicate, End Transmission
Digital audio file format	CD
Music media format	CD
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N