This one was a hhhHHHWHALE of a bummer. As evidenced in that mindnumbing bible of a post I shat out on The Menzingers an eon back, I followed these guys from the start, but never really dug them much 'til On The Impossible Past "dropped" in 2012. To me, the shift into a more "alternative" direction (which entailed a slowed roll, less dated scream-singing, and a generally more mersh luster) granted the songs a license to DOWN THA PUNX and focus on realizing their melodic potential, which, tbh lol, was the only thing that kept me paying attention after the first two.
When "In Remission" was released as a lead-off for Rented World, I noted a new buttrock-y thuggish-ness to the proceedings, but the successful gamble they take on the song's structure and the multiple, soaring choruses had me stoked as fuck. I puked out Punknews-y sentiments like 'FUTURE AOTY FER SURE, BRO' to the (very) few friends who showed interest, but then "I Don't Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore" hit the net. To be fair, it is a solid track, one which we can enjoy with our well-oiled beards, U.S. microbrews, and sense of entitlement in the pit, but certainly confirmed my lead on their descent into dumber territory. The cauldron of influences the band are ladling from this time around is much more 90's MTV rock heavy, and hooolllyyy shit am I not nostalgic for that bullshit. I know I'm the poster-boy anomaly for my entire now-grown-up generation, but I fucking loathed construction-site boombox rock like Weezer, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins and all that "tortured artist" grunge shit back in the day, and surprisingly, dislike it even more now.
But y'know, NONA was a total Frankenstein of dorky 90's nostalgia, and I fucking loved them before their untimely demise last year. My central issue is more... everything else, really. The production is massive and corny, especially evidenced in the layered vocal moments, and I doubt any stripe of perfectionist savant could sequence these tracks into something cohesive. I'm not demanding a conceptual meisterwerk where each track is a puzzle piece, or hell, even an overarching mood like OTIP - this literally sounds like a bunch of random songs mushed together, though. A chorus here, a bridge there - there's a decommissioned minefield of goodies ("Bad Things" and "Nothing Feels Good Anymore" have a couple great riffs between them despite otherwise being messy/dull), but very few of the tracks throw you into your own angsty, jump-cut apocalypse of a music video as you're walking down the street of the town you claim to hate, reflecting on "tight" friends and "zany" misadventures and whatever.
"In Remission" is fucking fantastic, however, and "Rodent", "I Don't Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore", and "Hearts Unknown" come pretty close, but even Greg's tracks are mostly flaccid ballads too drippy and flat-out depressing to really raise a lighter to. This isn't to say that's Tom's contributions win by any means ("The Talk" is like Green Day "returning to their roots" circa 2010's), but hey, this is the first album I can say the two are neck and neck. One just needed to stop writing good songs, I guess.
Overall, it's not "awful" by any means, just a major step down and into territory I'm generally uninterested in. Having seen them play last year with Lemuria, Cayetana, and PUP was killer, though, and even the most skippable songs here are a lot of fun in a live setting, I just can't see myself listening to this the whole way through much more after this review is over.
