The Story So Far - I Want To Disappear

K, guess we're just gonna abstractly start with what sounds like track 7 from some other album and be completely confused as to which songs are about his dad or his ex-girlfriend. Word of warning, seriously cringe if you confuse the two. Even worse if you try to hear it as a recontextualization of dead dad to dead girlfriend. But whoever the hell he's talking about he's all of a sudden sure that he loves whomever's lust he's soaking up. See how creepy that is if you thought he was still singing about helping his dad with the yard work?

If you're just joining us, The Story So Far is that I Want To Disappear is an interpretational trainwreck of mixed metaphors and character confusion delivered by an unreliably unreliable narrator. You read that right, both unreliables are necessary. So, instead of any of that, I'm going to put on my Bottle Of Beef Executive of the Chair helmet and criticize the album as product from my own personal secret stash of consumer preferences.

First some positives. The vinyl is absolutely gorgeous, it sounds and plays fine, and it is completely listenable as background music without any lyrical scrutiny. You can totally enjoy listening to it, but as for paying attention your milage may vary. Nothing truly repulsive or mean-spirited about it, except for the implication that what's really happening is he's trying to rekindle an already failed relationship to mask the grief of his dad dying. He's kind of self-aware that that's what he's doing, but then he just goes all in anyway and you're left feeling like "welp, that's totally the wrong decision. Good luck dealing with that future emotional trauma."

Now the bad. 

1) I hate lyric sheets I have to unfold, and I definitely don't need a poster of the cover art. Don't like Pearl Jam's Ten in that regard either. 

2) this album clearly does not need to be a gatefold, and I completely fail to see the importance of the Rorschach Blot star in the middle. 

3) the track titles on the back are reverse embossed. You have to get the glare just right to read them. 

4) it sounds exactly like a contractual obligation album. Make an album or you're grounded and you can't tour with Blink 182 next Summer.

I don't want to dive deep into this album, but the misogyny is there. It's more complicated than simply hating women; there's a clear sense that he doesn't love her, he just doesn't want to deal with his grief alone and she is in that sense a usable object. I'm not convinced pallative objectification is a step up from misogyny, especially since it's competely backhanded, so all in all nope, The Story So Far hasn't really changed a bit. Still totally immature and self-centered by choice.

Blech. If I were her i'd also want you to disappear.