Since their debut …To The Beat of a Dead Horse, Touché Amoré have become a mainstay of post-hardcore and the hardcore scene at large. Playing at well established hardcore fests like Sound and Fury in California and Outbreak in the UK, they’ve straddled the line between the often overly masculine and inward-looking genre while broadening their horizons to tour arenas and collaborate with indie darlings. Onto their sixth album, Spiral In A Straight Line we get more of this straddling as there’s a large part of their rawer beginnings mixed in with their mature, twinkling sound of recent years.
While 2020’s Lament veered towards the twee at times, Spiral In A Straight Line has once again focussed in on the contrasts of light and dark, harsh and soft. Opener “Nobody’s” is a direct hit channelling their debut with fast, distorted guitars and aggressive drumming the order of the day. Jeremy Bolm’s voice is as hoarse as it’s sounded in a long time, a man unquestionably pouring his heart and his throat into every word. While his commitment was never questioned, he lays his voice on the line, in the end ‘all you get is this performance, we’re all performing anyhow’. His cutting honesty about the day to day remains a focus and feels particularly alive as always. “Mezzanine” is another which feels like a band throwing themselves all in, while its rawness evokes their first couple of albums, for the pursuit of getting everything out of the current moment. The refrain remains almost discordant but with a restraint and melody that has come to define much of their career.
Rawness on the album rears its head in different ways though, on the single “Hal Ashby” it’s the emotional delivery that feels raw. Named for the director of the cult film Harold and Maude about the irrepressible activities in an age-gap relationship between the eponymous Harold and Maude, it’s a charged song looking inwardly to dealing with relationships. As honest as Bolm’s songwriting as always been, the chorus’ powerfully delivered ‘send me off, send me away, I’ll take some time recalibrate, I’ll try anything, anything, if it’ll course correct me‘ serves to highlight the relatability in his life and songwriting. Touché Amoré’s music has always felt at its most moving when it highlights the simple yet brutal emotional songwriting of Bolm. Spiral In A Straight Line is no exception and “Hal Ashby” is a case in point and has the power of some of the best moments of 2017’s Stage Four.
Truthfully, some of this gets lost in the album across certain songs such as “Altitude” or “Finalist” which after a few listens have simply left no effect on me, something I find with very few songs on their first few albums. “This Routine” similarly has all the hallmarks of a classic Touché Amoré song, its simple lyrics highlight what’s lacking in everyday life while the band underscore it with typical melody and sparkle but it leaves little impression. These songs in the tracklisting can almost feel buried, after the single and other standouts like “Mezzanine” and before the collaborations and climactic feeling of “The Glue” and “Goodbye For Now”.
Talking of collaborations and indie darlings, ninth track “Subversion (Brand New Love)” is a slower song which brings down the tempo a bit. Over the course of the album it’s a needed shift, bringing balance and a careful management of momentum. Aurally, it’s a lovely song that shows off the ear for melody that guitarists Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt have built over the years. It builds to borrow the lyrics of Sebadoh’s “Brand New Love” where they’ve enlisted the help of Lou Barlow himself to build the layers of emotion. “The Glue” builds up the narrative while again highlighting Bolm’s songwriting. ‘I’ve tried so hard to be the glue, there’s connection just residue’ is just a little metaphor that compounds a depth of feeling as a relationship somewhat falls away before they decide to say goodbye for now.
Closer “Goodbye For Now” starts with a brutal screamo drumbeat from Eliot Babin before opening back up for that aforementioned melody. “Goodbye For Now” perfectly balances the two halves of Touché Amoré, it has the hardcore energy and screamo influence balanced with the penchant for melody and indie styling. The indie styling is furthered by a feature from Julien Baker, who also collaborated on Stage Four song “Skyscraper”, her first muted but then agonised voice duelling with Bolm’s as he shouts ‘goodbye for now, but I’ll try to come around’.
Spiral In A Straight Line is very much a Touché Amoré album, in parts too on the nose for it to feel fresh but in general full of wondrous moments. While slightly hit and miss, tracks like “Hal Ashby” and the powerful and climactic final three tracks make it an intriguing journey across its 32 minutes. Even if not every part feels as much as it should, Spiral In A Straight Line is a worthy addition to a very consistent back catalogue.
