The Menzingers : Everything I Ever Saw
The Menzingers have packed up some of the pop punk tendencies that haunted their 2023 Some of It Was True and walk the line of Americana twang with the whiskey roughened drive of ’70s punk on their eighth album Everything I Ever Saw. Which doesn’t mean there aren’t any pop tendencies, but rather that they approach them differently, anchored by a rock backbone. The key to the album’s success can be heard right from its opening with “Chance Encounters,” in which a clever lyrical attack is bolstered by the honesty found in the trembling croon of Greg Barnett’s voice, and accented by Tom May’s leathery vocal cords.
The band’s strength lies in the niche they’ve carved via their style of songwriting, which has now gone through eight albums of refinement. Yet it’s still sounding fresh, more sustainable then if they were still trying to convey the youthful angst of their early work. The anger has since matured into a cynicism of the waning social graces of the world around them. “Romanticism” is the album’s best song, as the lyric hit harder than the strum of the power chords (“All that is and all that never was/Don’t mean shit to us now/Come tear your heart out with me“). “Gasoline and Matches” puts indie rock in the back of their beat-up pickup truck and takes in into the backwoods of Pennsylvania to have a reflective drink while staring up at the graying sky, with some of the most heartfelt lines you are going to hear this side of a Jason Isbell album (“Tell the kid in you that it’s OK/You don’t have to have it all figured out/Beyond a shadow of a doubt“).
Some of the refinement comes from working with producer Will Yip (Turnstile, La Dispute), who is great a capturing big sound with lots of space. This approach works well on the more anthemic “Breath With Me,” yet even this type of song finds the tempo carrying enough vigor to appeal to their old punk rock fanbase. Synths ring out going into “When She Enters My Dreams” to create more of an ’80s-influenced feel, which features the album’s best vocal performances, nuanced yet still powerful. “Parade Day” might stand out more if they had not already loaded this album up with some high-powered emotional punches that are more memorable, but even the less immediate moments on this album knock it out of the park.
When The Menzingers turn up the dials for the closing title track, the punk energy it recaptures brings both Social Distortion and Bruce Springsteen vibes in equal measure. The polished production on Everything I Ever Saw shouldn’t prove to be a turnoff to any non-liberty spiked punks with a yen for heartland rock, as it’s a well-written, fun album with an undercoating of melancholy. While it might not have the post-hangover punch that Hello Exile delivered, it’s a logical next step for the band that stays true to their uniquely earnest anthems.
Label: Epitaph
Year: 2026
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