My Life Is Just A Record They Performed

Say Anything “This Is Fucking Ecstasy” – If Rivers Cuomo was an asshole instead of a douche, he’d be Max Bemis from Say Anything. Both of them write pristine, peppy suburban pop-rock, but their neuroses take very different forms: Whereas Cuomo plays up a wimpy, dorky, faux-chivalrous front, Bemis is aggressive, self-destructive, and antagonistic towards anyone who upsets his delicate mental balance. Most often, his spite is aimed towards conformist “Barbies and Kens,” dismissive hipsters and a succession of ex-girlfriends that he mocks with a sadistic glee that borders on misogyny, but on occasion, he becomes the target of his own endless, extraordinarily bitter critique. Like a lot of charismatic jerks, Bemis can be very funny and insightful, but it can be a slog to listen to 27 of his songs in a row, even when most of them are of very high quality. The misanthropy and narcissism of his words gets to be wearing after a while, but in small doses, the manic bounce of the songs can be utterly intoxicating. I’m being quite literal when I use the word “manic,” by the way — Bemis suffers from bi-polar disorder, and the majority of his songs are like manic episodes set to bopping Thin Lizzy-style riffs. Since Bemis always seems as though he’s teetering on the brink of emotional collapse, those perky numbers are usually the most harrowing — he somehow manages to flip sunny California pop-punk into a tense tightrope act. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)