Rocktober Roundup: Some Of It Was True by The Menzingers

To start their fifth record, 2017’s After The Party, Scranton’s The Menzingers gave us the blistering track “Tellin’ Lies”, with it’s simple, oft-repeated sing-along chorus: “Where we gonna go now that our twenties are over?” Guitarist-singer-songwriters Greg Barnett and Tom May have always spent most of the band’s songs in that anxious grey area wondering when they were going to have to grow up, what that would look like, and what it would mean. And while I believe After The Party is the band’s best album, here we are now in 2023. The Menzingers are now all well into their fourth decade of life, and have a new album, Some Of It Was True. So what has changed now that the band’s twenties are, truly over?

Thankfully, not much.

The band has always led off their albums with absolutely driving singles, and “Hope Is A Dangerous Little Thing” is no exception. If you want to know where Barnett’s head is at, all you have to do is look at the song’s bridge: “Sometimes I wanna blow up my life and become someone else.” The band may have aged, but they’re still in a mindset filled the little voices of doubt and fear we all have. Barnett uses a growl almost as much as his singing voice, calling himself “the junk you throw away”, and this is one of the more optimistic songs on the album. But you’re rocking too hard to be concerned what his therapy bills look like.

And while the second track, “There’s No Place In This World For Me” rocks just as hard, Barnett and The Menzingers do not let up. This is where this band has made their mark for a long while, and they are masters at laying it down. Even the title track of this album features the lyric, “The older I get, the less I know.” Someone should tell them staying in their 20’s (or teens) is something we need to hang on to.

Everything in this album has a tinge of this vibe. Even in the more gentle rockers like the sublimely wonderful “Alone In Dublin”, we’re left to ponder someone who isn’t with Barnett. Some songs have softened, but that is clearly the Bruce Springsteen influence coming more and more into focus. And yet, though some of the songs feel lighter, Barnett brings out his gruff yell more and more on these tracks. He may be getting older, but he’s not aging gracefully; not without a fight and a scream.

As always, the band gives another marvelous effort with songs that will no doubt be screamed back at them as they tour in support of the album. And that is the secret to The Menzingers: Yeah, they’re fucked up. But they know we are, too. So let’s all go down with a song.