Boysetsfire - The Misery Index: Notes from the Plague Years

Boysetsfire
The Misery Index: Notes from the Plague Years
Equal Vision Records
Grade: A-

As mentioned on our reviews of the two previous Boysetsfire releases this year (the reissue of The Day the Sun Went Out and the b-sides/rarities collection aptly-titled [Reissues. Odds and Ends. Rarities]), the five-piece from Delaware has had a long and sometimes tortuous career navigating the standard bullshit plus a new label for each release. The latest change was the dipshit Wind-up Records dropping BSF, in favor of their generic shitty bands, and EVR scoring these hardcore punk giants. On their first release of new material since Wind-up, BSF drop one of their best records in their career only rivaled in pivotality by The Day the Sun Went Out. It helps that this thirteen-song, fifty-one minute onslaught has the most aggression the band has displayed in awhile. Yet, instead of a raw, emotional fuck fest, The Misery Index illustrates how damn good BSF are at songwriting, balancing their patently soft-to-hard shifts with melodic and catchy segments. Unlike the mockingly bad emocore bands, BSF hit you with the shifts in an unconscious manner; you follow the shifts without a standard verse-chorus-verse structure staring you in the face. To some degree, BSF seem to have learned from Wind-up’s constant desire for melodic and easily digestible pop, and mixed it into their version of hardcore songwriting. EVR doesn’t necessarily look for singles as Wind-up does, but the label and the band have a number of choices if they so desire. You might choose “Requiem” with its monster chorus. Or, the title-track, that in other hands would continue the generic rock start, but BSF take the four-minute number and slice into an array of interwoven moving parts. A wise choice would be the slow acoustic starter “(10) and Counting” that builds into an emotional juggernaut about the band; with the same passion as Hot Water Music’s “Western Grace.” For chills, just hit repeat on “(10) and Counting.” To purge themselves of this lighter fair, BSF take what they learned touring with Snapcase and nail the opening of “Falling Out Theme.” Or you can take “Social Register Fanclub” that rocks you while laying a thin piano underneath halfway through. (Then, there’s the oddly poppy “Deja Coup” and “So Long…And Thanks For the Crutches” which both use horns, a move that is seriously out of line.) If you want an example of what emotional hardcore is supposed to sound like, pick up the Misery Index (and The Day the Sun Went Out if you haven’t already).