Anthony Green
Boom. Done.
BORN LOSERS
The title might sound a little whimsical, but there’s not much humor to be found within the bones of Anthony Green’s latest solo album. Best known as the lead singer of progressive post-hardcore/emo types Circa Survive and Saosin, Green has been struggling with addiction for most of his adult life, whether that was booze, opiates, cocaine, heroin, pills, or anything else he could get his hands on, legal or otherwise. He’s been in and out of rehab ever since the age of 19—he’s now 40—but the most recent stint was different. He got out in early 2020, only for the world to go into lockdown. But rather than let the pandemic-induced isolation drag him down at the worst possible time, he used the downtime to create Boom. Done.
The first song he wrote is the second song on here. Titled “I Don’t Want to Die Tonight,” it’s a soaring proclamation that this time he really did beat the habit, that he won’t succumb to the all-too-easy draw of a relapse. As the song builds into an intense, desperate crescendo, you can’t help but think it’s now or never, do or die, one final chance before the drugs finally win.
Of course, that’s the result of Green’s ability to turn all his pained experience and existential torment into something more than just a song. Rather, these 10 tracks are pure, distilled feeling. Just listen to the way he repeats the title of “Maybe This Will Be the One” at various points throughout the song. It’s a gorgeous, ethereal tune that floats like smoke and sadness as what could be Chet Baker’s ghost plays trumpet in the background. It’s orchestral and understated at the same time, defeated and defiant, tormented but hopeful.
Ultimately, it’s the hope that wins out here. Partly, that’s due to Green’s mesmerizing, distinctively high-pitched vocals. “I’m still waking up from this shit” he sings on opener “So It Goes,” a song that doesn’t shy away from either the trauma or the bliss of his addiction, and which sets the tone for the brutal honesty that follows. That’s captured perfectly in the vulnerable fragility at the heart of “Center of It All,” the hopelessness and hopefulness conveyed in “Trading Doses,” and the dissociation of “No Other Choice.”
And while there’s darkness present throughout, it really hits on the last two tracks, the mournful “2022”—which wrestles with a near-death experience, presumably by overdose—and “Fucks Me Up,” about the pros and cons of self-awareness and survival, about the ephemeral nature of life, about how easy it is to let go and how difficult it can be to hold on.
