Polyvinyl Records – 16 Feb 2024
“Something Left Unsaid Will Explode If Not Released”
Last week I finished listening to Laura Jane Grace's fantastic memoir Tranny on audiobook. I'm sure that impacted my first few listens of the new Laura Jane Grace record and truly helped me see the growth in Ms Grace's lyrics. There is nothing more impressive than watching someone figuring themselves out and embracing it.
Each record from folk-punk pioneer Laura Jane Grace, from Against Me! through her first 2 full lengths Grace has let more and more of her identity shine through, and by going back to that turning point in her career the maturation shines through. Similar in nature to the scene-changing memoir, this record feels less like songs written for a band and more personal, more free as though ripped straight from the pages of LJG's journals.
The album art of Hole In My Head shows Grace in greyscale violently cleaving her skull open as a brightly colored decoupage frees itself. The record shows Grace even more open than her previous releases, more comfortable in who she is and no longer keeping the thoughts buried beneath the synapses of her mind. No longer hiding, no longer focused on what others want and no longer figuring things out, the tracks are personal; songs of isolation, yearning and consolations in the place of celebrations, but when laid upon the doo-woppy boppers crafted by Grace and Matt Patton (Drive-By Truckers), it's hard to keep your hips from giddily shaking. Hole In My Head is equal parts cheer and sneer but it is completely Laura.
In the most Reinventing Axl Rose-ish track of her solo career, LJG opens the record up with the title track, a tightly-packed nail bomb of frustration and emotional pressure, building up with each simple task in skin that's not hers, awaiting the slightest splinter from which to erupt, relief from the tension of her inner monologue. Follow-up track “I'm Not A Cop” finds Grace embracing her brilliant satiric and caustic wit at the expense of the authorities.
“Dysphoria Hoodie,” Grace's live staple about the Adidas hooded sweatshirt she wears partially as turtle shell to hide from gender assumptions and partially as Linus' security blanket to provide self-assurance in herself. Fully stripped down to nothing more than an acoustic guitar and Grace's poetic musings, the song carries infinite weight in the blank spaces of the track. The song stands out in its vastness thanks to the notes left unplayed.
Channeling George Harrison on “Birds Talk Too,” an ode to trips to foreign cities before yearning for her basement show roots on the aptly titled “Punk Rock In Basements.” “Cuffing Season” comes back around to solitude with an acoustic, feeding into the stripped down “Tacos and Toast,” a ditty of convincing yourself that loneliness is freeing. Free to do whatever you want even if it means eating, driving and getting off alone, all while trying to convince herself she's better off without someone by her side.
“Keeping Your Wheels Straight” is among the most palpable songs of depression ever laid to wax, chronicling a dark episode with bravery and honesty as she struggles to keep herself on the right path, while the demons attempt to take the wheel and derail the whole journey. This isn't going to help you get through the thoughts, but Christ alive, it fucking spells those moments out perfectly.
“Closing the album out with “Give Up The Ghost” leads listeners to a terrifying proposition… that this may be the end for Laura Jane Grace. In spite of the strength of this record and in spite of her lyrical calls that “I'm standing at the center of the universe/screaming at god, I'm not done,” its unnerving to consider this may be Grace trying to convince herself otherwise but resigning to the fact that she's lost her passion. Its a sentiment I hope is fleeting, as Hole In My Head proves LJG has plenty more left in the proverbial tank.The honesty, the self-awareness and the depth of Laura Jane Grace have rarely been as consistent as they are on this record. Charmingly angry, bitterly hopeful and self-assuredly uncertain, Hole In My Head invites the listeners into the diary of a brilliant and complex woman.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed's musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he's self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/