Bristol-based pop-punk emo rock band Trashed are on the cusp of releasing their debut full-length album, and Jake Longhurst was lucky enough to review it. Here are his thoughts.
Trashed are on the verge of their first ever album release, and the Bristol emo-punk-rockers are coming out of the gates at a screaming pace, with a conceptual album full of bangers about mental health problems and recovering from a toxic relationship. The album releases at midnight tonight (00:00 October 14th) so have a read and then go listen to it!
Decay, the first track on the album and first single, is the most reminiscent of the band’s previous sound and reminds me of their first single Waste Away. The song is a pop-punk and emo inspired banger about depression and the feeling of wanting to die passively. It’s a well-written song that starts off the journey of the album, setting the scene of the story that unfolds by portraying the mental health of the protagonist and allowing us a view into their head. The second song on the album is called Problem Solving, and it’s a highly energetic pop punk song that to me sounds like it’s about working out what went wrong in the protagonist’s aforementioned previous relationship. The protagonist is questioning themselves and looking inwards, whilst pushing someone away that is trying to help them!
Song three is called All Alone Again and is an upbeat sounding song but with very introspective lyrics about spiraling mentally and being alone. It was one of the singles released ahead of the album dropping, and is an excellent juxtaposition of the happy music with the melancholy lyrics. The next song Nothing To Me continues this theme, albeit sounding a little more emo but upping the groove factor, and discusses the protagonist‘s inner conversation with themselves, in a spiral of apathy and negative self image, where the protagonist sees themselves as ‘nothing to [them]’. Track 5 is the third of the previously released singles for the album and is called Memories. It’s possibly the most emo song on the record and is about moving on from the memory of someone you cared about, by trying to force yourself to forget about them. This naturally doesn’t work, and so the music works really well with the lyrical theme in this song particularly.
… the central theme is about the exact thought that ‘time heals everything’ so even though the protagonist wants to be with them, they can’t, so this provides a double meaning here…
The next three songs made up my favourite section of the record, starting with Cynical. It’s the punkiest song on the LP, and is about feeling like a waste of space but also about trying to become a better person. The progression into the next song Time Heals Everything is brilliant, it’s a drastic switch from the most intense song into a much more emo inspired song about pleading with someone to try again, suggesting that time would heal the wounds between them. The song title is integral to the idea of the song as the central theme is about the exact thought that ‘time heals everything’ so even though the protagonist wants to be with them, they can’t, so this provides a double meaning here, as time is also gradually healing the protagonists feelings. The final song in the trio is Far Away which is yet another punky song, but is furthering the theme of the previous track and is about pushing yourself away from someone in order to improve yourself as a person by moving ‘far away’ from them.
The final three songs are the most healthy progression on the album, making for a really enjoyable end to the album whilst also having three great songs individually. It’s Not My Day feels rather Sum 41-esque to me, and is yet again about moving on and also working on mental health problems in order to become healthier by changing the mindset of the protagonist away from the more negative thought process of previous times. Brand New follows it as the penultimate song on the album, and follows the theme of the previous song in promoting self improvement, with the phrase ‘I’m not broken just bent’ really sticking out to me as a testament to the improvement of the protagonist and their improving mental health and mindset. The final song on the album is called Lessons Learned and is very much about what the title suggests. The protagonist is apologising for their previous actions, and is showing how they’ve become a different person who is healthier and in a better place, capping off the story of the album in an almost triumphant place of self-improvement and triumph over the odds.
… the phrase ‘I’m not broken just bent’ really sticking out to me as a testament to the improvement of the protagonist
This is a stellar first effort from the three-piece, and any fans of pop-punk, emo, punk rock, concept albums or bands who deserve a lot more fans should get on this straight away! The group have blown all expectations out of the water and I for one am thoroughly excited for a live demonstration of these brilliant songs.
Jake Longhurst
Edited by: Jake Longhurst
All images courtesy of Trashed, all videos courtesy of Trashed on YouTube
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