JAM THE ALBUM WHILE YOU READ
"GREAT ADD YOU SAUCY MINX" - BEN
KALI MASI
" [laughs] " ALBUM REVIEW
APRIL 10TH, 2023
Listen, we put labels on bands. We attach genres to sound. Simple comparisons cut through the bloviation of music reviews. They’re a shortcut. They’re a reality. It’s normal. Bands hate, love, or, are indifferent to this shorthand. Alas, I was ignorant of Kali Masi. Maybe you are too. Maybe you’re already a fan. So what to say?
Post-hardcore.
Pop-punk.
Emo.
Yes, these are labels. And we could parse said genres into idiosyncratic and esoteric subcategories but that would be more look-at-me masturbatory than helpful. What you need to know is that if “Paint Me Jade” doesn’t tickle your proverbial Pop-punk pickle then I’m sorry, you salty sad sap. Emotional lyrics with punk energy. The highs and lows of a cucumber brine hitting perfectly on the palate. This is a sodium sound jar I’ll happily drink from.
[laughs] is filled with tempo changes and inventive song structure that moves beyond simple punk rock gnashing of teeth. There is a true emotional heft to these songs. There is a struggle of finding your place in the world, where in “Guilt Like a Gun”: the future’s getting harder to find these days/and the past is harder to get to.
On “Long Term” the line: "there’s a monarch stuck on the grill of your sedan" speaks to a metamorphosis in a state of arrest. Youth and growth and dreams and adulthood. Are we going to live up to our potential? Or does society force a life that isn’t inherently a source of daily fulfillment? “Freer” remarks on the rent and bills that are inevitable as we move into a new age and, for some of us, battle with that "insatiable need to be/ Wherever whenever."
Sam Porter has done yeoman’s work on these vocals and when on “Trophy Deer” he sings: "I don’t want to be your souvenir" he illustrates that this band is not here to be hung on your wall. To be put in a box. To easily accept your labels.
- Trent Ryan Smith