While Jack Antonoff may be one of the most booked-and-busy music producers of the past decade, having collaborated with pop music giants such as Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Lorde and Sabrina Carpenter, his latest endeavor is one that tells a story of his own. On May 22, Antonoff released his fifth studio album with his band, Bleachers, known for its indie-pop-rock hits “I Wanna Get Better” and “Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call.” Although not sonically outstanding, Bleachers’ new album “everyone for ten minutes” is a project that simultaneously feels personal and universal, making for a cohesive album with standout singles.
The first track of the album, “sideways,” immediately orients the listener in the classic, hazy, mumbly atmosphere that Antonoff and Bleachers does best — think “Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call” or “About You.” Instrumental interludes, brief and sidelined at first, explode into an orchestral break following Antonoff’s first-of-many euphoric screams of the album, before dying down to a once-more atmospheric closing. The next track, “the van,” is a dive back to Antonoff’s suburban Jersey childhood. His story of change and the inevitable loss that comes with growth is one that is all too familiar. The song’s walking pace matches the feel of moving forward by rejecting the past, blowing past every obstacle to achieve and yet still looking back with a nagging in the heart, the weight of a one-way ticket rotting heavily in the gut. Suburban angst is a terrible, beautiful thing, Antonoff seems to say.
“You and forever” was the first single released from the album, and understandably so, delivering quite the listening experience. After a dissonant start with just Antonoff’s layered vocals, the track builds and releases in distinct phrases until it culminates into Antonoff’s signature shout at the climax of the song, delivered by powerful drums and an ascending instrumental line. While the shout seems euphoric at first, Antonoff’s raw vocals give way to an underlying sense of desperation and yearning as it transforms into a cry for something beyond what he can give. After the shouts die down, the song ends the same way it began — except now, the listener has been taken on the journey that is “you and forever.”
Freshly married to actress Margaret Qualley, Antonoff shouts it from the rooftops in “dirty wedding dress,” the anthemic country-inspired second single. Sonically, this track is one that can be chanted by a collective, clapping to the 2s and 4s while dancing in a packed concert venue, or alternatively, jammed-out around a small campfire surrounded by close friends. Lyrically, “dirty wedding dress” is a tribute to holding the people close to him, close — and like an inside joke, he teases in the song what the public eye doesn’t know, waving it in his listeners’ faces. For such a crowd-pleasing sound, the song certainly throws up a middle finger to what the public thinks.
Throughout the album, Antonoff’s attempts to be experimental fall somewhat short. “take you out tonight” starts with a freeform feel, a bit jazzy and experimental. Antonoff’s audibly autotuned vocals seem out of place, feeling more like a collision of artistic visions rather than an intentional choice. After the freeform introduction, the song shifts into a double-time feel. The sax, keys and drums each take solos adjacent to that of jazz jam sessions, but the song is somehow too structured to be compared to jazz, and instead just sounds like Antonoff’s attempt to make something experimental. Similarly, in “we should talk,” his autotuned voice takes the listener out of the spell of the instrumental opening.
Furthermore, Antonoff’s writing becomes formulaic as the album goes on. By the sixth and seventh tracks of the album, the Bleachers formula began to get old: an atmospheric opening, a gradual buildup, a shouty climax and a calm ending. When I heard the buildup approaching in “i can’t believe you’re gone,” I was almost disappointed that the song didn’t just stay as a soft ballad, if not just for some variation in musical tone. The album’s cohesiveness in style made it so that not many tracks left a sonically strong impression due to the lack of differentiation between songs, leaving a lukewarm taste upon first listen.
While Bleachers’ fifth studio album may not be the most musically captivating with one too many shouts and “sha-la-las,” the nuanced narrative that it tells, Antonoff’s narrative, is one that captures a universal feeling of nostalgia and identity, or rather lack thereof. Music is supposed to make you feel something and Antonoff certainly achieved the effect. “Everyone for ten minutes” is an album that has the potential to grow on the listener, and is one that is worth the listen — even for just the ten minutes it takes to get through “you and forever,” twice-and-a-half times.
3.5/5
