Zer0

It recently dawned on me that this album is already a decade old. It was one of those important albums in my musical growth and changed the course of what I would listen to over the following decade. Although I didn’t pick up a copy of this until summer 2003 when the album had already been released a few months, but it quickly became the main soundtrack for that summer and the following autumn. Up to that point I was still being exposed to a seemingly endless string of pop-punk bands and nu-metal bands by various music channels and magazines. Seeing the rather strange promo video for ‘Girl’s Not Grey’ offered something a bit different for me, something I could relate to better than the juvenile content of pop-punk and the machoness of nu-metal. AFI was the first modern band that I became genuinely obsessed with. I got as much as their back catalogue as I could, I had the t-shirts and I had the posters on my wall.

The last time I listened to this album was three years ago at my mate’s flat in a drunken nostalgia session. Listening to it now feels even more nostalgic and reminds me of who I was and where I was ten years ago. It’s also quite strange listening to it now through a better pair of headphones and noticing far more detail in the sound than I remember hearing. I can probably say that this would not be something I’d listen to if this was my first time to ever listen to it. Some of the lyrics which I thought sounded so different and so mature when I was sixteen now sound a little bit too angsty for my liking although still very well written. This album was probably the first time I genuinely paid close attention to lyrics. My CD booklet is well-thumbed from reading through the pages of lyrics trying to decipher their meaning and trying to get inside the mind of Davey Havok. I try not to let my view of this album be tainted by the hordes of bands which followed in its wake sporting eye-liner and distorted guitars as this album is still a cut above them.

While songs like ‘Girl’s Not Grey’, ‘The Leaving Song pt. II’ and ‘Silver and Cold’ don’t seem to pack the punch they once used to there are still some songs on this album that I genuinely enjoy. ‘This Celluloid Dream’ was one of my favourite songs on the album and it still sounds great and wonderfully uplifting today. ‘The Great Disappointment’ was not one of my favourite songs on the album not now it seems to have taken on a different light, perhaps changed by my years exploring the wonders of alternative rock and other music and constantly developing in life. Now it seems like the standout song of the album. ‘Paper Airplanes (Makeshift Wings)’ is another clever song with a catchy shout-along chorus and mysterious imagery. It sounds just as good as it did ten years ago. Back then I felt that ‘Death of Seasons’ was ruined somewhat by a weak and unimaginative chorus and even now I feel that it ruined what could have been a potentially interesting song. The mash-up of post-hardcore and electronic music that it touched on could have been so much more interesting had they executed it better. It seems to me now that the second half of the album sounds better despite the three singles being included in the first.

The wait for Decemberunderground three years later was agonising. In those three years I had also moved on to bands like The Cure and The Smashing Pumpkins among others. I was also expecting AFI to grow as a band and take a more mature direction, so you can only imagine my reaction when Decemberunderground dropped. It just didn’t feel right.

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