Message From Kathlene

I got this album is like, 7th or 8th grade. Of course it was the Matt songs that hit the hardest at first, "SFO" and "Cringe" and "Clavicle" just tearing up my tiny, naive little heart. But "Message From Kathlene" snuck up on me, as it has a subtlety and complexity that some of Matt's more straight ahead stuff lacks (which is OK, there is room enough for all depths and breadths) and I found myself struck by the incredible melancholia and deeply felt lovesickness that just oozes from Dan's creakily beautiful voice. It started to make its way onto every mixtape I made, for friends but especially for prospective girlfriends, and it always prompted one of two questions: 1) Which band sings the Kathlene song or, if the listener was already familiar with the Trio, 2) How did I never notice this one before? Dan is exceptionally good at writing songs that only seem to make themselves known a year after the album's release, which is one reason why he and Matt are pop punk's Lennon and McCartney. Matt Skiba stuns you with the raw emotion, the scorched earth approach - taking a verse and a chorus and just burning them to the fucking ground - and then Dan peppers the albums with achingly beautiful torch songs such as this one, so by the time you've truly absorbed an Alk3 record in its entirety it's been a few years and they're about to release another one. Maybe that's why, 18 years later, I'm still roped in and waiting for their next album as eagerly as I waited for "Maybe I'll Catch Fire" in the early months of 2000. I could go on and on about that record, too, but I suppose that's for another comment section and another song.