Good Luck Everybody

Description

New album from Phoenix, Arizonas folk punk lifers, AJJ! Out 17th Jan 2020 via Specialist Subject Records (UK). Good Luck Everybody, is a grim glimpse into the tidal wave reality of modern life in America. Its a collection of songs that will undoubtedly stand out in the bands 15-year catalogue; while still rooted in the folk-punk sound AJJ has become known for, the album is unafraid to delve into new territories that test the limits of what the band is capable of. Produced by vocalist Sean Bonnette and bassist Ben Gallaty, with their usual cast of collaborators (Preston Bryant, Dylan Cook, Mark Glick, Owen Evans) plus a few guest appearances from Thor Harris, Jeff Rosenstock, Kimya Dawson and Laura Stevenson. Sonically, Good Luck Everybody is AJJs least punk record but lyrically, its their most punk its a noticeable change of pace from the idiosyncratic songwriting style that has become Bonnettes signature. His wonderfully weird turns of phrase and oddball word pairings are ever present, but this time his thematic lens is more directly focused on the inescapable atrocities of the world around him. Much like Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs pulled their songs straight from newspaper headlines, Good Luck Everybody feels like a long scroll through social media feeds on a particularly volatile day. The song Mega Guillotine 2020, for example, came directly from Twitter. It was influenced by Twitter funnyperson @leyawns popular tweet depicting a mockup of a French Revolution-style guillotine with one blade and enough headrests for 15 Congress members. On Normalization Blues, Bonnette laments what this never ending deluge of atrocities has done to our humanity. Later, on Psychic Warfare, Bonnette takes out some aggression on the man at the root of it all, albeit through his trademark polite aggression: For all the pussies you grab and the children you lock up in prison, for all the rights you roll back and your constant stream of racism / For all the poison you drip in my ear, for all your ugly American fear, I wrote you this beautiful song called Psychic Warfare. For all of its dark leanings and its pessimistic reflections on modern culture, AJJ hopes that fans will ultimately come out of the album in a hopeful place. By its final track, A Big Day for Grimley, it feels like AJJ is holding the listeners hand, staring at the looming apocalypse ahead, and whispering a message into their ear: Good luck, everybody.