My schedule is extremely busy at the moment both for the blog and personal life. Between work, college classes, and our new Australian Shepherd mix puppy that is extremely needy for attention my time is limited. Over on here there are a huge collection of albums that have just been released that I need to talk about. It’s weird I’m starting with Spanish Love Songs’s Brave Faces Everyone because before this week I never heard of the group so I have no connection. I found these guys through twitter thanks to Mark Grondin at Spectrum Pulse who posted that this was “something special”. Following my personal rule of not watching or reading reviews on an album before I write a review, I did not know quite what to suspect. Was it sarcasm? Is it actually spanish love songs as their band name implies. The answer for both are a strong no.

This is indeed something special. Plus the last thing I expected was punk and emo that hits you with a tsunami of emotions. Been awhile since I’ve gotten such intense goosebumps from an album even after many many listens. Their vocalist Dylan Slocum has a voice rich with pure unbridled emotions. The timbre in his voice is raw and cathartic. To possess the ability to change styles from restrained spoken word to gut-punching intensity in a manner that flows with the lyrics like his is an amazing talent that many punk groups should take note of. Surrounding him are the group’s clearest and most well-balanced instrumentals thanks to a subtle production that holds a layer of beauty underneath the grit.

Where this album truly shines, like many emo records, is in the lyrics. A variety of emotional topics are discussed and are laid out briefly on the opening track “Routine Pain”. Brave Faces Everyone doesn’t take it’s time to hit you with raw emotional either with that opening lyric “On any given day, I’m a 6 of 10”. The way it grabs your attention and let’s you know it is going to be an experience with such a simple line is incredible. Digging deeper into “Routine Pain” the song covers routine drug use, specifically drinking, in a hopeless way to mimic the fall that comes with addiction that you can only dive deeper into without assistance. He doesn’t have anyone around who can help him though because he has scared off everyone in his life.

Following is “Self-Destruction (As a Sensible Career Choice” which brought me to tears the first few listens. This is the lowest point one can get. How they use dismissal in the chorus by responding to “It won’t be this bleak forever” with “Yeah right” shows all hope and ambition to better one’s self has vanished. Yet they follow it up with “And I hope you’re right” as a response to show there is the smallest bit of hope no matter how low you stoop. The verses work with the chorus by elaborating the idea and giving insight into the thoughts the character is having. I also love the bridge where the cymbals exemplify the stress being displayed while Dylan Slocum’s voice becomes rougher. These traits carry over to “Generation Loss” where his voice reaches instability and the cymbals contain it with even more rapid playing. “Generation Loss”. “Generation Loss” discusses the issues in generation gaps and how mental illness was so neglected in previous generations. Such generations refuse to understand the struggles of younger generations and push aside all cries for help. As a result we are forced to resort to medicating ourselves both legitimately and potentially resorting to more extremes.

The pictures painted by Spanish Love Songs on Brave Faces Everyone force you to look through a lense one might not otherwise acknowledge. “Kick” is yet another example of which in its message that at surface level is simply about life kicking you while down. Searching deeper an uglier truth comes apparent of a character’s depressing family life that began with his father taking hard drugs and the issues only branched out from there. Struggles continue into “Beach Front Property” and its examination of certain paranoia and wanting to move away from the city where one can be alone. The brighter guitar tones that lie in the back of the production are a quality touch that accents the somber nature of the song.

Lyrics dealing with generational misunderstanding like on “Generation Loss” reappear on “Losers”. This time attacking the countless negative opinions towards Millenials people hold without ever caring about how they feel. The generation faces high levels of depression and anxiety because no one listens to them and scoffs at their struggles. Depicting them as “losers” is heartbreaking and exposes the harsh reality that someone who struggles from emotional turmoil is often labelled as being a loser. Keeping this idea is the following song “Optimism (As a Radical Life Choice)” which I view as haunting. The “losers” who deal with depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses are left to rot in their mind and are sometimes given a death sentence when people begin showing no care and trivialize their struggles. Ending a trilogy of these lyrical motifs is “Losers, Pt. 2”. This song offers an interesting double entendre in its message – especially in the lyric “Don’t you know you were born to die poor man?”. Working with the other lyrics it can mean both dying poor financially and dying poor in the sense that your life ends with no happiness and hope. Spanish Love Songs does such a great job at taking already made observations and adding an important and new layer to the message.

Finally we get to the final two tracks. First is “Dolores” which breaks the admittedly formulaic song construction Spanish Love Songs created and avoids the chorus and bridge for nothing but lyrics telling a story. The story seems to be about witnessing all the hostility and anger happening around the narrator in his personal life and on the news. Plus there is a theme surrounding one struggling and a critique on the “prayers” people give to those in pain without any legitimate care towards the individual. Closing out Brave Faces Everyone is the title track which is much like “Routine Pain” in its coverage of all the different hardships portrayed throughout the album. Concluding this collection of gut-punches is a form a confusion on whether or not to give up or to put on a brave face and pretend everything is alright.

Brave Faces Everyone is definitely Spanish Love Songs’s rawest album. The overall look into the struggles that the younger generation faces in a very real manner makes the album a hard listen, but one that feels necessary. Each song is loaded thick with lines that could stand alone and still put a lump in your throat. I’m hesitant in my final thoughts on this album because this rides that line of absolutely excellent and perfect. The songwriting and Dylan Slocum’s cathartic delivery carries this album, but that doesn’t mean the instrumentals aren’t great. Quite the opposite actually when considering the crisp culmination of the instrumentation under a strong production. Although the instrumental vibes do a fantastic job juxtaposing with the lyrics, I cannot help but think some of the songs blend together. This is such a small gripe in the grand scheme of things. This is something special. Something that deserves attention and to be listened to in detail because of its fusion of hard emotions and important issues. I recommend everyone to give this a listen, and even though I am not yet ready to call this perfection it could easily grow on me more as the year continues.

Favorite Tracks: “Routine Pain”; “Self-Destruction (As a Sensible Career Choice)”; “Generation Loss”; “Kick”; “Beach Front Property”; “Losers”; “Optimism (As a Radical Life Choice)”; “Losers, Pt. 2”; “Brave Faces, Everyone”

Rating: 9/10

Released: 02/07/2020

Label: Pure Noise Records

Genres: Punk Rock, Emo, Pop Rock

Remember this is all my opinion and I would like to hear yours. Music is overall subjective which allows for great discussions and the chance to learn about music and your own personal taste in music. Make sure to subscribe to the blog for notifications of new reviews, and keep being a music nerd.

RATING SCALE

Perfect Excellent Great Very Good Good Meh Disappointing Bad Horrible Pitiful Bottom of the Barrel