Anthem for a New Tomorrow
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Anthem For A New Tomorrow is Screeching Weasel's fifth full length album. It was recorded after the band returned from their 1993 U.S. tour, which would ultimately be their last. Ironically, the liner notes of the album read "Hey! You've heard them, now go SEE them!" The title is taken from the song "Second Floor East" from their previous album, Wiggle. Mass Giorgini recorded the album at his Sonic Iguana studio. All songs on the album are taken from this session except "Every Night" and "Totally", which the band felt were better represented by demo recordings they'd done months earlier at Flat Iron Studios with Andy Ernst. After their last LP, the band lost bassist Johnny Personality. Rather than find a replacement, guitarist Danny Vapid switched to bass and Ben Weasel took over second guitar. This later came to be known as the band's "classic" lineup and closely resembled the one they used for their Boogadaboogadaboogada! album. In contrast with the albums and EPs that preceded Anthem, the vast majority of the writing was done by Ben Weasel alone. Only one song, "Trance," out of 18 is co-written with bassist Danny Vapid. Vapid later remarked that "to suggest anything else would've ruined the mix." Musically, the album is much more stripped down than their previous work, though not in the way that the early material was. The songs are more consise and the songwriting is noticably tighter. Gone are the experimental instrumental interludes of the last record. There's an obvious maturity present in the songs, and they all flow together extremely well. The album has been described by the band as a concept album, dealing with issues of alienation, paranoia, and isolation in modern society. Weasel has said that he wanted the album to sound "like a panic attack." The artwork mirrors this and helps set the mood of the record as soon as the listener sees the jacket. The concept is filtered through Weasel's usual sarcasm and humor, and the result is an album considered by most fans and band members to be the peak of their efforts. The album was remastered and re-released by Asian Man Records in 2005.
Track Listing
1. I'm Gonna Strangle You 1:04
2. Falling Apart 2:00
3. Leather Jacket 1:05
4. Rubber Room 0:30
5. Talk to Me Summer 1:55
6. Inside Out 2:04
7. Peter Brady 2:10
8. I, Robot 2:50
9. Every Night 3:45
10. Totally 1:44
11. Three Sides 0:45
13. Cancer In My Body 0:53
14. Thrift Store Girl 1:09
15. Panic 0:12
16. Trance* 2:17
17. Claire Monet 3:40
18. A New Tomorrow 2:17
All songs by Ben Weasel except * by Weasel/Vapid
Personnel
Ben Weasel - voice/guitar
Danny Vapid - bass/backing voice
Jughead - guitar
Dan Panic - drums
Fat Mike - backing vocals on "Peter Brady"
Blake Schwarzenbach - backing vocals on "A New Tomorrow"
Cassandra Millspaugh - backing vocals on "A New Tomorrow"
Joey Vindictive - backing vocals on "A New Tomorrow"
The Songs
The bitterness and alienation that make up much of the album start right at home on the opening track, "I'm Gonna Strangle You." The song is a harsh attack from the point of view of an obviously frustrated significant other. It's never specified which gender the song is about, and Weasel would introduce the song as a "girl gets revenge on boy" story on tours prior to the release of the album. He later explained that he said this so his live-in girlfriend would not realize that he had written a song about "wanting to wring her neck" when fans sent videotapes of live shows back to him. Regardless of Weasel's intent, the song works from both perspectives. The ambiguity of the narrator and the one the narrator wants to strangle make the song work in any frustrating situation.
"Falling Apart" takes the mood of past introspective tunes like "My Brain Hurts" and expands on it. It's one of the many songs on this album to show Weasel in a newly confessional songwriting state. The same kind of personal exploration is also present in "Inside Out." Both tracks find Weasel without answers and increasingly alone in his day-to-day life. This writing style hits is peak in "Every Night," one of the band's most well-written songs. In it, Weasel forces himself to analyze his own faults while an anonymous loved one is gone. These songs are bleak and desolate and refreshingly sincere from a band that was, up to this point, mostly known for its silliness and sarcasm.
"Leather Jacket" returns to the failing relationship theme of the first song, though a bit more musically light-hearted. The lyrics could be crushing if they weren't delivered in such a defiant manner. Weasel ends the song with a declaration to keep something to remember them by, their leather jacket. It's never quite clear whether this decision is made out of sentimentality or spite.
"Rubber Room" is one of a group of very short, to-the-point songs on the album about losing one's mind from increasing external pressures. The lines between mental and physical illness blur, and Weasel himself sings "the worse it gets the less I even care." "Cancer In My Body", "Panic", and "Trance" expand on this theme later in the album. The only one of these songs to break the one-minute mark is "Trance," which is also the only song on the album co-written with Danny Vapid.
"Talk to Me Summer" is an instrumental track, something the band would return to occasionally in their career. Weasel claims the idea to record an instrumental was inspired by the song "A Weekend in Hogboro" by The Mr. T Experience. He wanted to write a song that would use a guitar lead instead of vocals to carry the melody.
"Peter Brady" is an optimistic aside from the rest of the album. Weasel offers advice for getting past the awkward, vapid teenager in everyone. The end of the song is a call and response list of ways to avoid these neuroses between Weasel and Fat Mike of NOFX. Many had compared their voices in the past, so Weasel decided he would get Fat Mike on the album so listeners could decide for themselves if their voices were similar.
The line "there's a sweet little robot inside of you" from "Peter Brady" leads directly into the next track, "I, Robot." This song has a much more mechanical, awkward feel than the usual Weasel fare. Ben wrote the lyrics in a more stream-of-consciousness style than usual, which annoyed many fans. He would later utilize and perfect this style on future albums. "I, Robot" takes the concepts of the record to an extreme, with Weasel repeating "no, I'm not human" for the chorus and purposely blocking out all emotions but logic. This chorus line would inspire Weasel to pen the first line to "Every Night", the next song on the album.
"Totally" has been a fan favorite since its first release in 1993. It's much more in line with the band's usual relationship songs than the bitter, angry tones of the earlier tracks on Anthem. It's a charming, sweet love song that captures the energy of a new relationship extremely well. Only one lyric hints at the pessimism of the rest of the album, and even that has hues of hope in it. This song, along with "Peter Brady", shows that Weasel is not completely joyless even while exploring his darker thoughts.
"Three Sides" is a quick punk song that Weasel described as fitting in with the theme "because its demanding practicality over theory."
"I Don't Wanna Be Friends" returns to the failing relationships of the beginning of the album. The lyrics alternate between fairly scathing ("she wants to tell me what to do, i'm really not in love with you") to silly and humorous ("i'm not a retard at the zoo"). Of all the relationship-based songs on the record, this one is the most specific about its subject. Weasel later wrote that he would've left the song off of the record if he were to re-do it.
"Thrift Store Girl" is a possibly platonic tribute to a girl who helps the narrator out while shopping. It's very idealized in its description of the girl, and one gets the impression that the narrator cares very much for her. Weasel described the song as "giving the listener a little breathing room" from the heavy topics and pessimism of the rest of the record.
"Claire Monet" tells the story of an idealistic girl who grows up, settles down, and sacrifices her individuality for stability. Like "Thrift Store Girl", it idealizes the girl it describes, despite Weasel's admission that he "didn't know her at all." The song laments the loss of her youth and energy to age and routine. It's the kind of song one might find on any Screeching Weasel record, but adds to the concept when placed in the context of Anthem. Ben later described the song as not being about anyone in particular, but describing a trend he'd witnessed among girls he'd known. He did once know someone with the name Clair Monet, though he misspelled both her first and last names for the song.
The album closes with its pseudo-title track, "A New Tomorrow." It is essentially a listing of crutches and vices Weasel is rallying against in the hope of building "a new tomorrow now." It stresses self-reliance over escapism and strict regulation. Each of the two verses contain four lines of lyrics, and on each line another vocalist accompanies Weasel, adding to the effect of the song. Blake Schwarzenbach from Jawbreaker, Joey from The Vindictives, and Cassandra Millspaugh provided backing vocals. All four vocalists sing on the choruses of "a new tomorrow." Weasel has commented that he wrote the song specifically to end the album, to "condense and intensify" the themes discussed throughout the preceding songs.