Falling behind
Lagwagon
Resolve
(Fat Wreck Chords)
Suicide of a former drummer causes SoCal punks to mull their history.
Resolve is interesting a title as any given to an album born of suicide. Lack of resilience caused a death that, in some bastardization of Buddhism, reincarnated resolve in others. The loss of Derrick Plourde stirred something remarkable in Lagwagon, a surprising feat considering the crawl of their recording activity (Resolve is only their second new album in seven years). Fitting, then, such a traumatic response pushed Joey Cape to go back to the beginning both sonically (a broader take on Bad Religion) and thematically. Not as politically charged as past efforts, yet it’d be dangerous to call this the “suicide” album. “Rager” and “Creepy” come closest to direct examination of the subject, but never sound hung up or bogged down in bland existentialism.
—Steve Forstneger
Click here to download “Heartbreaking Music.”
