I Look Like Shit
(2012)
why you'll love it: depressing lyrics done right, fun DIY style
why you'll hate it: Not as wacky as a typical BTMI! album, sometimes too cheap
Next week is Thanksgiving, which means I only have about 4 or 5 reviews left until the end of the year posts. Which means I better make sure the next 4 or 5 albums I pick have a good shot at creeping into that stuff. Which means, I gotta get the FUCK out of September releases. Looks like I'll be backed up heading into 2013.
I've been sick all week. I feel like shit, so it only seems fitting to choose I Look Like Shit; a solo effort by the jaded ska-punker everyman, Jeff Rosenstock. Last year, Jeff wrote my favorite album (Vacation) alongside his band, Bomb The Music Industry! I Look Like Shit has a lot of what made Vacation special: a departure from BTMI!'s typical ska-punk sound, and a shockingly relevant and brutally honest introspective look at society and loneliness.
This is presented by Jeff as a collection of demos and unfinished songs, as if you're about to listen to a dozen random low quality mp3s. He's selling himself short here. Truth is, this album is mixed and planned out better than some actual studio releases (See my AK-FG review last week). Songs bleed into each other at times. There is a compelling introduction track, and a big fun finish. While it's obvious where he's making ends meet by using a drum machine and more acoustic guitar than usual, he could have EASILY gotten away with saying this was a planned and produced solo album from the very beginning.
Jeff's depressing lyrics are something I've become accustomed to, and even look forward to. I was really turned off by the way he used them with otherwise typical wacky BTMI! music, in Adults!!!: Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited by Nothing!!!!!!! (2010), but loved the way they juxtaposed with the 60's beach party pop background in Vacation. So maybe I'm a big hypocrite I Look Like Shit doesn't have the same style as Vacation, but still suits the general theme of this album (depression and death) well, without distracting from it or making the whole thing too overwhelming.
Lots of great songs on here. "The Trash The Trash The Trash" is my favorite. It's got a lot of great examples of the stupid excuses we make for not doing things when depressed. "Little Blue Pills" and "Bonus Oceans" are fun as well as resonant. "Amen" seems to revel in its lack of subtlety. After that soul-crushing ballad, a cover of 銀杏BOYZ' "I Don't Wanna Die" picks you up by the scruff, brushes you off, and sends you home happy. This enthusiastic performance of a seemingly random, already over-the-top song is probably what listeners will remember most about this album.
With a little confidence, this release could have been dressed up and finished to stand right alongside BTMI!'s Vacation; but I assume the mindset that led to this billed as a collection of unfinished failures that would otherwise be thrown out, is exactly what goes into the kind of perspective that makes the songwriting so relatable.
