Rock Star Journalist

A more appropriate record for holiday release, I can’t possibly imagine. Weak Teeth‘s sophomore full-length, So You’ve Ruined Your Life (out not from Tor Johnson Records) continues the anger and frustration the group started with on their debut single, and refines and focuses it even further than they did on What A Plague You Are.

The stark imagery of the cover gives a clue as to what you’ll find on the 12 inches of vinyl within the jacket. Weak Teeth rage against world destroyed by political infighting, but what really seems to come through is the yearning for something with meaning. “I’m Better Than OKay” sums it up best, with “a constant burden that you can’t know or understand” being the throughline of So You’ve Ruined Your Life.

The rage and frustration which comes through in everything — the agonized vocals, the tense rhythms, and terse guitars — actually find their greatest release in an instrumental, “Providence Music Scene Soccer Camp Trophy,” which begins with FDR’s Flag Day fireside chat, and then launches into a minor epic of stop-start blasts paired with wide-open stretches of grandiosity. When it ends, you feel exhausted and refreshed, like you’ve just been through a boxing match in a sweat lodge.

Maybe it’s come too late to make your best-of list for 2014, but Weak Teeth’s So You’ve Ruined Your Life might be the first great album for 2015. From the moment the album blasts alive with “If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Kill Yourself,” to the fading moments of “Nothing Is Cool,” you realize that you might’ve waited over three years for this record, but it’s been totally worth it.

https://soundcloud.com/dog-knights-productions/weak-teeth-life-is-bullshit

Weak Teeth’s So You’ve Ruined Your Life is available on silver vinyl from the the Tor Johnson webstore, on mixed green vinyl from Riotous Outburst Records, or on clear with black smoke vinyl from the FITA Records store in the UK.