lungfish

love is love

‘Emo pioneers and staple, Lungfish, has recently released “Love is Love.” It is their first proper record in three years and their ninth full-length on the highly respected D.C. label Dischord.

Perhaps this statement is blasphemous but this record, umm… Geez, well, it just sucks.

On first listen, it was a huge surprise to find out that the CD was halfway done the first time I looked at the LCD display. It just seemed like the first track was never going to end but had multiple pauses between progressions. To my surprise, the changing of tracks caused those pauses.

As good as previous Lungfish records may have been, “Love is Love” sounds like someone took a copy of Fugazi’s “Red Medicine” and played it at half-speed. The guitars, the vocals, it all just drones on. Actually, the droning and the vocals make it sounds like a Modern English record.

The sounds of this album are comparable to that of a Walkman with dying batteries. It’s like listening to an album of lullabies by the Sex Pistols. There’s just something incredibly awkward about it.

The mixing and production, as per the Dischord standard, are of the highest quality. Few to no flaws can be found on the part of the studio. Maybe the fault can be found on the part of evolution. So much has changed since the band’s inception in 1988 that maybe they are the dinosaurs of the emo world.

It’s OK to stare from a distance but watch out kids – if you touch their frail bones, they may fall apart.