Although this album is softer than the earlier So-Cal/AFI inspired years releases like Tiger Army II, it's production and Cure-like influences are really infectious.

A huge fan of the early Tiger Army years, I was very skeptical of this album at first, and put off listening to it for along time. However, the Smiths influence and impeccable mixing really won me over. The album is an eclectic mix of stylings ranging from the lonesome western sounds of a steal pedal guitar to the Spanish influenced "Hechizo de Amor", where Nick 13 displays his most powerful, sincere vocal ability yet.

Fans of the early years may long for the punk sensibility of the previous albums, however the pyschobilly inspired themes still remain constant throughout this album, they are just subdued with a more thoughtful rhetoric and a wider range of instrumental experimentation that Tiger Army completely nails.

Love this CD. Love it, love it, love it.

I'd like to know where the songs the reviewer refers to as "horror themed" are? As far as I can tell, most of the songs are about an aching heart, missing out on elusive love. (I may have answered my own question!) Anyway, when I think of horror themed, I don't think of your standard love song.

I had to correct ike_ness who claims that "Hechizo de amor" translates to "homemade by love".
I am Chilean and fluent in spanish. So i have to tell u that the reviewer had it correct all along..it means "Spell of Love." Hechizo means spell. The word "homemade" is nowhere in that sentence..homemade is said hecho en casa. Jeez man dont trust these fuckin internet translators too much.

As for the album..its pretty damn weak. Afterworld is an awesome song though. Forever fades away makes me fucking cringe on the other hand.
Power of Moonlight and Self Titled are amazing records though, they simply have the best songs these guys have ever written.

It's pretty good, but the over-production of those hi-hats/ cymbals or whatever is really....really annoying.

Yeah, no one will remember psychobilly in five years, i mean fuck, who's ever heard of the Meteors, the Quakes, Demented Are Go...

This cd friggin ROX!!! all u haters out there SUCK

this band sounds like alkaline trio

"No 'Pissed Jeans' review huh?"

Brandon, whattdya think of it. Personally I reckon 'Shallow' slays the new one, but it's still dope.

blade-runner

PS- Huhehhuh...Tiger Army

I thought this album was pretty damn good, just two misses though so that bummed me out as those two are unbearable. Did find it to be better than "Power of Moonlite" so all-in-all it's a fine release.

If you live in Portland, OR, EM on Sandy has Blackhawks over Los Angeles on theshelves already. I peed myself a little bit.

to the anonymous poster below:

it's not a bad album by any means...but all the things that made tiger army somewhat unique are gone..and like i kind of mentioned in my previous post, most of that is due to the producer jerry finn, who manages to make every single one of his productions sound the same. in the end, it makes for a somewhat enjoyable listen, but ultimately, you'll want to go back to their previous albums.

I still don't have this, but judging by how everyone attributing a low score seem like complete idiots, I'm going to bet that this is a great record.

tiger army has had a consistent following for 10 or so years dude

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

Anything remotely related to "psychobilly" sucks horribly. In five years no one will remember that any of these bands even existed.

This is awful. It sounds like what would happen if AFI had listened to too many Social Distortion records.

these guys are the biggest douches. i did a show with them where they refused to play because they didn't have any redbull. luckily the Riverboat Gamblers were good dudes and played double their set and played "mock" Tiger Army songs instead. So fun.

score is for the lack of roman numerals

I meant to give the Sixer reunion tour a 10...but I screwed up. Anyways, TA officially sucks balls now.

Score is for the Sixer reunion tour in September....this album gets two stars. It sounds pretentious and whiny. There last album was bad as well imo...oh well, I'll always like the second one...I guess that dude from AFI must have mapped out a plan to being a rock star

Wheres the psychobilly! Wheres the bass solos!? I get that nick 13 has a great voice, Wheres the psycho attitude?...........the album si gorgeous and the music is ok if you step back and just look at it for waht it is but as far as psychobilly goes......its more like a rock aballad album with an upright bass!

Cheers!

~Geoff~

Hmmm... what can I say. The album starts off great and then goes a bit pear shaped. I remember Nick 13 saying when I saw him play live that he loves Duran Duran and that era of music and some of that shows up in this.

I can understand branching out and trying new stuff, but don't forget the roots.

Tiger Army's first attempt at a radio friendly disc.

Well I got the album today, and I am very pleased with it, Nick 13 voice sounds very good.

pretty good, but not the best tiger army record by any means. I'm sick of Davey Havoc's guest vocals. And what's the deal with the hardcore parts of the album?

Online translators usually aren't right..."hechizo de amor" is "spell of love"
from a spanish speaker

Not to be a stickler, but "Hechizo de amor" translates to "homemade by love".

http://www.spanishdict.com/AS.cfm?e=hechizo

Otherwis e, great review, and really good cd.

Without worrying about labels...like "This isn't punk enough" or "this isn't psychobilly enough" one can come to the conclusion that this is just a better album than their previous records.

If only the band could keep a steady line-up and build some chemistry, they could be even better.

4 albums = 4 different drummers
4 albums = 3 different bass players

not a bad album by any means...but every album produced by jerry finn sounds exactly the same. he's almost as bad as rick rubin.

this was such a weird album for TA to put out. i liked it, but it was definitely a departure on some levels

Apparently! I'm not too good at Anti- either.

Luckily, I'm leaving town in a couple days, so hopefully, a record shop in North Bay will carry it.

can't say i was blown away, but not bad

maybe you just suck at hellcat.

I realize that. But thing is, I never have this problem with just Epitaph releases. I always see those albums out on time. But hellcat releases, never. Same thing with Anti-. But I've never noticed any epitaph releases coming in late.

For all intents and purposes Epitaph is Hellcat. Hellcat's just an imprint. Both are distributed through ADA which is owned by Warner so the availably really shouldn't be that bad.

-adam

To the guy 3 below, I think Epitaph does distro for Hellcat. To Paul, thanks.

hate to support the corporate machine, but this thing is only $8 at target

another nice review, well done glasspipe.

i plan on picking this up as well, although i was relatively dissapointed with III. it seemed to lack the punch and power of I and II. with the (3 years already?) they put into this, i'm assuming it will be better and sounds like it from the review.

Paul

Fuck, I hate hellcat. I have never once been able to get any of their albums on the release date. This has never been a problem with any other label. Even the more obscure labels are better than this.

Looks like it will be another week before I have this.

Such a good album. Perfect summertime music.
Not unless it contains the lyrics:
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind
These dudes just pwned Tiger Army.
-Dante

Actually, it's the former, is it not?
Yup, you're right.

Such a good album. Perfect summertime music.

" "Afterworld" and "Forever Fades Away," the latter of which features a guest spot from Davey Havok. "

Actually, it's the former, is it not?

it's a good album. but not a great tiger army album. quite a few songs sound like they belong on the new afi album.

great, again, not as good as power, fun as hell of a listen though and Hotprowl may be my favorite song by them. Hope they tour small venues for this-oldpunker-

I'd rather have a slurpee, a cheeseburger dog, a pack of marb reds, and a bargain Stray Cats cd.

Better than III, not as good as I or II.

Can't Wait to buy this tommorrow, from what I have heard, it sounds GREAT!

Not as many tracks that I immediately fell in love with like the past albums, but hopefully it'll grow on me, because I feel I need to buy this anyway.

The disco drumming actually angers me. There's no need for it.

Tiger Army wants to remind you to buy war bonds, to help us destroy the pink, commie threat!
-Dante

I heard Afterworld and I was excited for this. After hearing the rest Im am utterly disappointed. Every other song is either just bad or horrible.

I like this album a lot after streaming it on MySpace. I'll definitely be getting myself a copy soon!

afterworld is amazing. can't wait to hear the rest.

No 'Pissed Jeans' review huh? I sent it in a week ago. Anyway....Tiger Army is just "ok"...nothing particularly special.

This album was good enough to get burned and inserted into my colection, but I don't see myself listening to any of these tracks over and over.