Philadelphia-based band The Menzingers are about to release their new album Rented World on April 18 via Epitaph Records. Rented World is the fourth studio album from the band and the follow-up to their critically-applauded album On The Impossible Past (2012).
In celebration of Rented World the guys recently visited Australia, touring nationally with local heroes The Smith Street Band.
We asked Smith Street Band front-man, the one and only Wil Wagner to review the new Menzingers record for us.
The Menzingers – Rented World, Reviewed By Wil Wagner
The Menzingers’ fourth studio album, Rented World, is the perfect follow-up to 2012’s On The Impossible Past.
Past saw the four friends from Scranton become one of the more successful punk rock bands going around at the moment and Rented World continues the natural progression from that album.
A lot of the time, especially with punk rock bands, by the time albums number three and four roll around, the sound becomes a bit stagnant and starts to follow a routine – or goes the complete other way and becomes experimental for the sake of it and thus loses any genuine emotions that previous records had captured. The Menzingers walk this fine line perfectly. There’s still the big anthemic choruses, catchy lyrics, and balls to the wall passion that The Menzingers have built their sound and band around.
On Rented World, however, there is a more mature and almost subdued sound than on previous records, which is used to great effect. Where some bands fight off the natural changes, and growing up that happens naturally between album to album, it has been embraced on this record. It’s still exciting and alive, but there is a sense of real intelligence and consistency to the album especially in Greg Barnett and Tom May’s lyrics, which were always great, but have reached a new level on this record. All of the songs are fully realised and explored while still being simple, punchy, and catchy.
The most recent song they released for streaming, ‘I Don’t Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore’, perfectly showcases The Menzingers’ ability to write a song that grabs the listener immediately. The Weezer(ish) riffs and simple chorus of ‘The Talk’ is another great example of this.
But on this album, it’s the slower songs that may take a couple of listens that really reward the listener. The melody work of both Barnett and May is exceptional and Eric Keen and Joe Godino are maybe the most solid rhythm section in punk rock at the moment. Live and on record, Eric and Joe lock in perfectly, leaving plenty of room for the two frontmen to do their thing. And their thing is good.
Rented World is another solid, catchy, punchy, and fun record from a band that is slowly but surely taking over the world.
Tone Deaf are giving readers the chance to win a signed copy of the new Menzingers album (closes April 17th) visit our competition page for details.
