Bleachers have returned with their fourth studio album, eponymously titled ‘Bleachers.’ Although the band took a recording break after their third album ‘Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night’ in 2021, Bleachers have remained busy. After two tours, the band was featured on a remix of Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” in 2022, and more recently, were featured on Lana Del Rey’s “Margaret,” which was written about frontman Jack Antonoff’s wife. Antonoff has also kept himself busy, winning the Grammy for Producer of the Year for the past three years.
‘Bleachers’ was released on March 8, and has not only solidified Antonoff as an amazing writer and producer, but has also solidified the band’s sound, as the record brings many elements together to forge their own unique style.
The album opens with the track “I am Right On Time” with the synth and feelings of introspection and vulnerability that are carried throughout the record. The song is great as an opener; it feels like Antonoff is sitting you down and preparing you to take in the emotion of the record, especially with the line “So pour me a glass and I’ll tell you ’bout our war-torn born and raised dumb.” He’s ready to look back on the past and update you on the things that have changed since the previous album’s release.
Then we jump straight into “Modern Girl,” Bleachers’ first single off the album, which was released this past September. “Modern Girl” became one of my favorite Bleachers songs when it was released and I think the best song off the album. Here Bleachers take the sound from ‘Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night’ but make it even more uniquely theirs with references to New Jersey (Antonoff’s home state), name drops of band members, while covered in saxophone throughout.
The record then speeds into “Jesus is Dead.” The track is close with “Modern Girl” sonically, but is steadier, with less of the previous track’s nervous energy. Here Antonoff reflects on the changes to New York City since his youth, with the lyrics “Do you remember DFA? / Misshapes and oh the great Longwave,” mentioning key founders of the city’s indie music scene. “Jesus is Dead” is easily the next bop off of the album and it quickly became one of my favorites.
The fourth track “Me Before You” brings the energy down from the past two tracks, but simultaneously introduces Antonoff’s superb production skills and beautiful lyricism. Although toned down, many members of the band are featured, with synths, sax and guitar dispersed throughout. I can imagine playing this song coming home from a party at night, or–perhaps as Antonoff intended it–driving down the roads of New Jersey.
When the fifth track of the album “Alma Mater” was released as a single in November, I was definitely surprised. The track is miles different from “Modern Girl,” but it also features singer Lana Del Rey. Del Rey is a frequent collaborator with Antonoff and a good friend, so the almost underbaked song seems more like the two messing around in the studio than a true song.
The energy picks back up though (and I think peaks) with “Tiny Moves.” This song is so beautiful and happy, and I think it’s best described as a sunrise of a song. This is maybe because all I can think of when hearing the track is its music video, starring and directed by Antonoff’s wife Margaret Qualley, who dances beautifully in a parking lot across the river from New York City as the sun rises.
The following track “Isimo” is actually about Qualley, and I think demonstrates some of Antonoff’s best writing. The song is powerful and hopeful while also still being so heartbreaking. Antonoff explained to Apple Music that the song is about going through the hard parts of life while being able to share whatever grief or pain you have with a partner, singing: “You’d been born to bleed, little soldier / With your magnet heart and sentimental boulder / Oh, it pulled you down.”
Before I continue traveling through the album, though, I feel like I need to include a disclaimer. If you’ve noticed I’ve referenced Bleachers’ third album (‘Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night’) a lot, it’s because I love it. The album is incredibly energized and is, in my opinion, the best rock record released in recent times, effortlessly combining modern styles with seventies and eighties nostalgia. ‘Bleachers’, to my surprise, is nothing really like it, and all of that energy from the previous record seems to be stuck in the first half of this album.
We continue into the second half of the album with “Woke Up Today,” “Self Respect” and “Hey Joe.” These songs have some moments that stick out to me; “Self Respect” tries to imitate the sounds of “Jesus is Dead” and “Tiny Moves,” while “Hey Joe” has a unique sound — one the Bleachers haven’t explored before as much.
But after this, I think the record kind of falls off. It ends with four pretty similar slow, synthesized songs. “Call Me After Midnight” isn’t bad, but it’s definitely more like what I would have expected from early Bleachers, not the band that created ‘Take the Sadness’ only a few years earlier. The last three songs, “We’re Gonna Know Each Other Forever,” “Ordinary Heaven” and “The Waiter,” kind of put you to sleep as they mush together without any defining qualities.
What I’ve determined when comparing ‘Bleachers’ to their other albums is that a longer album isn’t always better. ‘Take the Sadness’ was only 35 minutes long, while ‘Bleachers’ is 13 minutes longer, 13 minutes that I think really could have been chopped off the end.
I will still stick with what I said in the beginning though; I do believe that Bleachers have really solidified their own sound, whether it’s one of the band as a whole, or solely Antonoff. The band has always held their own quirkiness, whether in the personas of their members or through their songs, especially seen in their sophomore album ‘Gone Now.’ But with songs like “Alma Mater” in the recent album, Bleachers sticks with that quirkiness but without the energy so needed behind it that was present in other albums.
At the end of the day, I still trust Antonoff and the whole band to keep making good music and creating stuff I like. And who knows, maybe after seeing them live later this year I will fall in love with some parts of this new album that I didn’t like and fall deeper in love with those parts that I did.
