There is no need to do a history lesson on Jawbreaker, considering they were one of the most influential bands of the early 90's. While Jawbreaker was holding on to its punk rock roots and refusing to sign to a major label; bands like Green Day, Nirvana, and The Offspring were getting all the attention.
Depending on who you talk to, signing to a major label furthered the career of the aforementioned bands by getting their music to the masses and padding the band's pockets too.
So, it only made sense that Blake Schwarzenbach, Chris Bauermeister, and Adam Pfahler would fall in line to the dismay of their loyal fan base, and sign with DGC. The result is Dear You, originally released in 1995 as a thirteen song l.p., and now recently released on ex-drummer Adam Pfahler's label, Blackball Records, with five extra tracks and a video.
The differences are obvious from 24 Hour Revenge Therapy and Bivouac to Dear You. Gone is the grittiness that was heard on Revenge Therapy, and in is the crystal clear production of Dear You, that one can expect on a major label release.
The album opens with "Save Your Generation" where Schwarzenbach sings "I have a message: save your generation, we're killing each other by sleeping in." While their earlier releases were enthusiastic jabs at the politics of punk rock, Dear You teetered the line between enthusiastic and depressing. While some argue that this release showed a band that was dull and had lost its edge, I'll argue that it shows the maturation of Schwarzenbach and company. The band had progressed in song writing, while still holding on to the melodic hooks that helped shaped Jawbreaker's sound.
Songs like "Chemistry" and "Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault" are evidence of that, while "Fireman" and "Jet Black" showed a band that had grown, and still was growing, had it not disbanded. Lyrically Schwarzenbach uses plenty of metaphors and word play like in "I Love You So Much Its Killing Us Both" where he sings, "How can I save you when I couldn't save a dime?" While on other tracks like "Sluttering (May 4th)" we see more personal lyrics like, "Congratulations to you both, I somewhere you're happy. If there is a moral to this story I wish you would show me."
This isn't anything like previous Jawbreaker albums, if that is what you were expecting. It is better and it isn't worse, it just is. The foundation is still there, but the sound has changed a bit. Jawbreaker might have been better off taking cues from bands like Screeching Weasel and never going to a major label, but they chose to take the other path. Luckily for us, we were still able to witness with our own ears the final release of Jawbreaker without having to drop a hundred bucks on eBay.
3/4
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