By By Tim Lee

Against Me! has been a staple in the modern punk rock scene since their first full-length release Reinventing Axl Rose. Their lo-fi recordings and often acoustic driven punk rock was a breath of fresh air in a scene dominated by bands that sounded exactly the same.

On their first two albums, Against Me! prided themselves on writing songs that were based on guttural emotion. Their live sets frequently featured the band refusing to use microphones and just screaming the songs out at the top of their lungs, with help from the enthralled crowd. Searching For A Former Clarity is a blatant departure from all of those ideals.

Searching For a Former Clarity opens with the song “Miami,” which is the highlight lyrically, musically and emotionally. The rest of the songs on the record come off as forced versions of previous efforts. The radio single “Don’t Lose Touch” opens with the lyric, “You’re coming off / kinda contrived and pretentious / you’re not saying anything we haven’t heard before,” and goes on later to proclaim “I’m losing touch.” This is exactly what a fan of Against Me!’s earlier work will think when they hear the song.

The title track, which is the final song on the album, is the most poignant moment reached by Searching For A Former Clarity. However, by the time one has made it this far into the record, one can easily sympathize with the lyric “Let this be the end / Let this be the last song.” If taken out of context, Searching For A Former Clarity is a solid punk rock album, but when placed alongside Against Me!’s first two efforts, it comes off as mediocre and uninspired.

Fans of the band may just want to dust off Reinventing Axl Rose or As the Eternal Cowboy and pass on Searching For A Former Clarity. If the listener is new to the band it’s a decent jumping on point, but they still might be better served by picking up the earlier records.