Description
Label Review.
2019 album. Punk. Also available on CD.
Our Overview.
Philadelphia-based punk band, The Menzingers: singer/guitarists Greg Barnett and Tom May, bassist Eric Keen, and drummer Joe Godino are set to release their sixth studio album, ‘Hello Exile’ the bands’ follow-up to their 2017 critically acclaimed release ‘After The Party’. With the band achieving a soul-baring intimacy all throughout the album, ‘Hello Exile’ emerges as The Menzingers’ most emotionally daring work to date. “We’ve always been in love with good songwriting and the beauty of taking a song to its fullest potential, but with this album I feel like we’re really becoming the band we’ve always wanted to be,” says Barnett.
Since forming as teenagers in 2006, The Menzingers have shown their strength as rough-and-tumble storytellers, turning out songs equally rooted in frenetic energy and lifelike detail. On their new album ‘Hello Exile’, the band take their lyrical narrative to a whole new level and share their reflections on moments from the past and present: high-school hellraising, troubled relationships, aging and alcohol and political ennui. And while their songs often reveal certain painful truths, 'Hello Exile' ultimately maintains the irrepressible spirit that’s always defined the band.
The sixth full-length from The Menzingers, ‘Hello Exile’ arrives as the follow-up to ‘After the Party’: a 2017 release that landed on best-of-the-year lists from outlets like Clash and Noisey, with Stereogum praising its “almost unfairly well written punk songs.”
In creating the album, the band again joined forces with producer Will Yip (Mannequin Pussy, Quicksand), spending six weeks recording at Yip’s Conshohocken, PA-based Studio 4. “That’s the longest amount of time we’ve ever worked with Will,” notes Barnett. “We wanted to make sure these stories didn’t get lost in the music, so we kept it to a lot of room sounds with the guitar and bass and drums.”