AFI - Crash Love (CD)

All Music Guide

GothPunk firebrands AFI followup their smash 2006 effort Decemberunderground with the propulsive blast of alternaglam that is 2009's Crash Love. Sticky with epic swaths of melodic rock and and just enough swaggering Gothitude to please the emotweens, Crash Love is less mannered than its predecessor and reveals a band exploding with a creative powerpop and metal spark. Though leadsinger Davey Havok's glittergoth persona is well intact, it seems tempered here with a bit more punkish muscle and '80s popcroon. These songs have madly obsessive hooks and sparkling production which never sacrifices the hard rock energy at the core of each song. In that sense, such tracks as "Too Shy To Scream" with its tribal drumbeat homage to Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes" and the swooning, romantic anthem "Veronica Sawyer Smokes" come as doubleice cream scoops of sugary rock bliss. Think equal parts soloMorrissey and The Raspberries and you are pretty close. Similarly moving is the phyrric midalbum rock ball...ad "Okay, I Feel Better Now" with Havok's cries of "I died for the last lie, and the heartbreak for the first time, I could not take 'til I made you cry." However, AFI are anything but saccharine and tracks like epic fistpumping leadoff single "Medicate" with its slabs of distorted Jimmy Pageesque leadguitar lines and the equally bloodpressure raising "I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here" are both kickbutt rockers and dancefloor ready raveups. Ultimately, AFI have lightened up the band's darklysexy vibe on Crash Love and delivered a yearning, perfect pop/rock crush of an album. - Matt Collar, All Music Guide Read more Less