Bouncing Souls: Anchors Aweigh

The Souls are at their finest when they're churning out raw energy. Everything after Ghosts on the Boardwalk feels like they've lost a little sight of what made them great. Luckily we're pre-GotB here, and Anchors Aweigh is their happy medium between raw punk energy and the peak of their polish and craftsmanship.

We open with "Apartment 5F," a perfect entry point for fans old and new. Catchy, fast, great guitars. A song about self-clarity the morning after. A hook that grabs you by the collar and doesn't let go until it decides it's done with you.

"Kids and Heroes" is where the Souls start making their epic intros. A slow, methodical guitar crescendos into a rocking chorus. A cynical retrospection on the uncomfortable truth that our idols aren't always what we imagined. For a punk band from New Brunswick that started on their own label, it's crazy to see the mainstream attention this song got. They even performed on Conan.

"New Day" follows in much the same vein. You're grown up, now what? The daily grind, questions about whether the grass is greener anywhere else at all. The lyrics run counter to the rocking tempo of the song, wailing vocals and deep bass lines carrying a weight the upbeat energy tries to disguise. CM Punk used this song for one of his montages, and for good reason. The voice of the voiceless, set to the catchiest possible delivery.

"Sing Along Forever" is a love letter from the band. No matter how things change or how bad they get, the Souls are still here and their fans keep showing up. Another rocker with great roof-raising riffs and vocal range from Greg Attonito. The drums, while deliberately simple, push to the foreground throughout and give the song its backbone.

"Born Free" is a throwback for longtime fans. Fast, raw, not a sing-along but something more observational. Deeper lyrics about the surveillance state that settled over American life post-911. It earns its place as a palate cleanser between the more polished tracks surrounding it.

"Inside Out" is the most adjacent track to Ghosts on the Boardwalk on the whole album. A little more polish, a little less raw, technically tighter. A song about self-reflection, which is becoming a theme. If GotB is your favorite Souls record this is the track that explains how they got there.

One of the stronger ballads comes next in "Simple Man." What do we really need in life? A simpler existence. A family, a house. Time to grow up. The song ends with one of the better outros with a haunting echo of I wanna be a simple man with a little peace of mind. Live a simple life. In a place that's kind.

"Better Days" follows a similar path but harder and darker. One of the few romantically prominent tracks on the album, which given that Kienlen wrote most of this in the aftermath of a broken eight-year relationship makes it hit with a context the lyrics alone don't quite reveal.

"Night Train" is the biggest departure in classic Souls style. Darker and more brooding than they typically go, with a sample of a motorbike running through it and Kienlen himself taking lead vocals. Something that could find a home on Maniacal Laughter. The variety is welcome and shows a band comfortable enough in their own skin to take a left turn without losing the thread.

"Todd's Song" is a gut-wrenching, strings-accompanied memorial dedicated to Todd Eckhardt of The Pietasters. A fallen friend and contemporary.

A quick and direct "Blind Date" transitions us into "Highway Kings," both songs about surviving life on the road with nothing but the band and the next show ahead of you. Brief, punchy, and effective as a pair.

The titular track follows and is one of the genuine highlights. A crooning, wailing anthem declaring that the Souls are ready to mature. They're not leaving their troubles behind but they're learning from them. Musically the most ambitious track on the album and a clear precursor to what Ghosts on the Boardwalk would eventually deliver. We get some piano here, which adds a dimension you don't see coming from the Souls.

"I Get Lost" could find itself right at home on Hopeless Romantic or even on later releases like Comet, its accentuated "aaaaaaaaaay"s a gift to longtime fans who know exactly what's coming and love it anyway.

"The Day I Turned My Back on You" is easily the most pub-friendly song on the album. You can picture it playing over the speakers and being bellowed along to by a room full of people over a couple of pints. Kienlen sings lead again and the track includes references to Bruce Springsteen, which for a New Jersey punk band is basically a constitutional requirement.

"I'm from There" closes it out in fitting fashion. A song that covers the full gamut of styles, speeds, and emotions. A closer that ends on the crackling sounds of a fire, the perfect place to reflect on your roots and your past.

Anchors Aweigh is one of the darker Souls albums, not necessarily musically but lyrically. It deals out emotion by the bucketful. A mid-life crisis through song. It's not the happy and chipper How I Spent My Summer Vacation, nor is it the scrappy immaturity of Hopeless Romantic. This is the Souls finding themselves, realizing it's time to move on. They're not the kids who started this anymore. They're not the old boys either. They're the seasoned vets, and if they're going to stay relevant they need to evolve. This album is their coming to terms with that, their warning shouted to the fans: we're not going away, but we are going somewhere different. Before they do, they give everyone one last song to hold onto across every style they've ever played.

Anchors Aweigh might not be their best album, and depending who you ask the answer would vary wildly, but it is their most heartfelt. Insanely solid. The kind of record that never grows old, finding itself constantly in rotation front to back.

The boys were tired. They needed a break. But they came back eventually.