Release Date: Aug 31, 2018
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Epitaph
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It's been five years since Alkaline Trio's last studio album, and a lot has happened — a celebrity became president, a conman faked a music festival in the Bahamas and vocalist Matt Skiba replaced one of Blink-182 founding singers. These topics and more are dealt with on Alkaline Trio's latest release Is This Thing Cursed?, where the punk rockers return to scornful form with a vengeance. The Chicago band was in the middle of America's current political turmoil when penning the song "I Can't Believe" about Donald Trump's infamous ….
Though Alkaline Trio are certainly a band who need little introduction, the past decade has seen them release a triptych of records that tried to recapture the jaded angst of their early years, yet unfortunately fell short of the mark. This, coupled with frontman Matt Skiba replacing Tom Delonge in Blink 182 back in 2015, suggested the future of Alkaline Trio looked uncertain at best. Fortunately, 'Is This Thing Cursed?', the band's ninth record and first in five years, manages to distil the spirit of seminal Trio albums 'Good Mourning' and 'Crimson', without ever getting bogged down by nostalgia.
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