Review: The Menzingers - On the Impossible Past

The Menzingers open their account with Epitaph Records with the anthemic, hard-hitting and God damn brilliant On the Impossible Past.

Opening track ‘Good Things’ is a short, sharp introduction, bursting to life and setting an almost impossibly high tempo with the lyrics ‘I’ve been having a horrible time, pulling myself together’ rising and crashing through this avalanche of a record.

There’s no let up on next song ‘Burn After Writing’ which announces the first instantly memorable riff of the LP, as well as the first narratively brilliant and complex lyrics that ring like a classic novel being torn apart and thrown into the wind.

The next two tracks are the songs released by the Pennsylvanian four-piece prior to the LP’s release, ‘The Obituaries’ and ‘Gates’. It’s with these two tracks that the albums storyline and landscape really come into life. The Obituaries introduces the American backdrop that plays setting to many of the themes, but possess a monster of a sing-along chorus ‘I will fuck this up, I fucking know it’, that is so simple and so true in explaining the everyday anxieties and reservations we feel. It hits the nail right on the fucking head, without sugar-coating the splinters that come flying off. Meanwhile the strength of ‘Gates’ lies in its good old fashioned American storytelling ‘It’s not hard to fall for a waitress, when you both smoke, smoke the same cigarettes’ coupled with staggered power chords that build into yet another massive chorus, making you recollect anytime you’ve humiliated yourself for love, and yet making you determined to do it all over again in order to remember that ‘happiness is just a moment’.

The beginning of ‘Ava House’ shows that The Menzingers have lost none of the innovative song patterns and structures that littered previous album ‘Chamberlain Waits’. ‘I’m pretty sure this corner of the world is the loneliest corner of the world’ evokes the lyrical styling’s of The Hold Steady but the gruff crescendo of screams that finish this particular verse show that The Menzingers combine this lyrical intricacy with a heavy punk-rock attitude. Lower key ‘Sculptors and Vandals’ feels perfectly placed on the track listing, whilst ‘Mexican Guitars’ brings sunny Route 66 road-trips flooding through this late winter record and will undoubtedly sound just as great come July. ‘On the Impossible Past’ serves as an excellent bridge between the first and second halves of the record before ‘Nice Things’ revamps the pulse, screaming ‘Do ya wanna feel safe’, acting as an almost rhetorical question to remind you all that’s great about punk-rock. ‘Casey’ sounds like another ready-made single which seems a continuation of the plot that began with ‘Gates’, and is a fantastic example of the story-telling that makes this record such an enthralling listen.

Such is the energy and pacing of ‘On the Impossible Past’ that even at 13 tracks, listening to it seems to make time fly-by, whilst there is not a single note or line of filler whatsoever.  Come final track ‘Freedom Bridge’ the plot is wonderfully concluded and summarized, giving you the feeling of finishing a classic American novel, before immediately wanting to flip over and start all over again. They didn’t fuck this up, I fucking know it. Awesome.           

9/10