LA based legends Touché Amoré have come through with yet another front to back banging hardcore album. Already an essential piece, Lament is the first new album we’ve seen since 2016 by the group. However, they did do a complete rerecording of their first album in 2019, so the group stays active.
Maturity is the theme of this era in Touché Amoré’s development. Tackling themes such as struggle, isolation, overwhelming emotion, and the band has grown from deliciously cathartic to spiritually relatable. Is Survived By’s “To Write Content” was one of the groundbreaking moments for writer Jeremey Bolm, transitioning from personal struggle to talking about the attachment to suffering, and how he needs it to continue his creative process. Further, Studio Four is an entire album about losing his mother to her struggle with cancer. Now Lament continues Bolm’s journey from a powerful channel of emotion into a wise interpreter of the relatable world of struggle.
Touché Amoré’s Lament Hits It
There’s no ignoring the absolute perfection Touché Amoré achieved with their visual album. From the previously reviewed “I’ll Be Your Host” to the gorgeous 3D modeling of “Savoring” or the perfect video for “Reminders“, the entire visual album is the best the industry has to offer. Unafraid of traditionally cute color palates, scientific footage, abstraction, and Lament is a masterful composition of complementary visuals.
Each line by Bolm earns his delivery and your attention. As someone who grew up with this band, and who has lost a parent to cancer, there’s perhaps no one better who knows how to embody modern lamentation. An underrated emotional process, lamentation is how we deal with a life and a world outside of our control. Cities burn, children get raped, loved ones die, and all we can do is cry. Lament is a powerful piece of work that embodies the acceptance of all of that, the acceptance of the pain, and the knowledge that life can indeed be terrible. However, as Bolm screams “I need reminders of the love I have, I need reminders good or bad.”
Musically Lament Is as Tight as the Genre Gets
For those unfamiliar with the genre, Touché Amoré may sound a little too emo, but give it a chance. Their drummer, Elliot Babin, is a fucking hero. Throughout the album, and much of Touché Amoré’s discography, he kills it with addictive and threatening passages. His work rivals dance music in intensity. Additionally, gorgeous beachy California strings perfectly accompany the video for “A Broadcast” which features potentially my favorite symbol throughout the visual album. Finally, “A Forecast” features a subdued intro, reminiscent of Studio Four’s “Benediction“. It could be the right introduction for many.
Lament lyrics
You’d think by now I’d know my place
But I lose it almost every day
You’d think by now I’d have a grip
But again I’ve let it slip
I drank from the deepest pond
When the ocean did me wrong
Now I’m left with what I’ve known all along
So I lament
From “Lament”
Then I forget
So I lament
Till I reset
There’s what I know for certain
from “Exit Row”
I know that I’m not wrong
Suffering has no purpose
‘Round Here’ is an almost perfect song
(Almost)
If I’m lost at sea, its not the shore that saving me
from “Savoring”
I’ll get my fill of praise
And taste that bitter love
I guess I’m still afraid
For when you’ve had enough
The sooner my senses leave
from “A Broadcast”
The burden I have will go
And the golden boy can be
Paraded down below
… and down, I’ll go
Been a sideline voyeur, a conscientious deflector
Been an underpin for something better
Been a faulty poet, a personal arsonist
A last responder to my own self interest
Cold-shouldered by design
Sleeping in on borrowed time
Lets sing, just one more
I’m a trapeze act missing contact
A long way down to the floor
Been a broken record, a conscientious deflector
from “Deflector”
Been a sounding board for an absent savior
Been a faulty poet, an ambivalent nihilist
A last reporter to my own self interest
Since the last time we spoke
from “A Forecast”
I’ve learned quite a lot
The people I thought would reach out
Turns out they would not
On the anniversaries
Of the worst kind of days
My phone was mostly silent
One excuse was “giving space”
It’s not like I wrote some lyrics
Detailing the exact events
Some profit off the album
And most I just consider friends
But that’s the way it goes
I’ve healed more than suffered
I found the patience for jazz
