Bivouac

Jawbreaker includes: Blake Schwarzenbach. Reluctant emo-punk icons Jawbreaker followed up their promising debut UNFUN with the sprawling, challenging BIVOUAC. A thrift store epic that showcased the mighty trio's brains, guts, and muscle with equal aplomb, BIVOUAC represented a harmonious co-existence of poetic observation and crashing post-hardcore noise without sacrificing either. Expanding on UNFUN'S bursts of musical exploration, the band worked through gnarled compositions lined with feedback and propped up by the powerful, rumbling rhythm section. The songs are too gritty to be progressive, but far more adventurous than those on your average punk record. Songs such as "Big," "Donatello," and "Like a Secret" feature atypically cryptic, sophisticated lyrics that hint at crippling alienation and educated malaise without tipping their hand. Singer/lyricist Blake Schwarzenbach still delivers his literary musings in a raw-throated rasp, here modulated by gentler moments reflected in the music. The album's sheer size is imposing, but lighter moments like the rough-spun romance of "Chesterfield King" and tragicomic road anthem "Tour Song" keep things from becoming oppressive. No punk band was ever so successful at portraying emotional honesty through fragmented language and sheer volume, and Jawbreaker's impressive legacy is well represented by BIVOUAC, their most ambitious album.