album review ! :3
senses fail - life is not a waiting room (2008)
xxherlastwalkxx 12/09/2023
i'll admit, this one has grown on me. only a little, though. on my first listen, i was very excited because it was the next album in senses fail's discography chronology after still searching, which is my third favorite emo album of all time. and when i started listening, "fireworks by dawn" was an epic, brooding opener which set a great mood for the album and it was off to the races with "lungs like gallows," which is easily one of the band's best songs. then the album kept going. it felt like "lungs like gallows" was this album's "everyday is a struggle" or "sick or sane (fifty for a twenty)," and the rest of the album was a bunch of "can't be saved"s and "calling all cars"s. i don't mean to say that i don't like those two songs, they're both great songs even if they're less interesting than pretty much every other song on still searching. and what that means for this album is that... most of the songs aren't that exciting. there are, of course, more energetic songs, like "wolves at the door" and the wonderful amazing "lungs like gallows," but a lot of the songs just aren't very exciting. it feels like the band goes more in the direction of slower, anthemic songs than anything else, which isn't inherently bad, but it's maybe a little sad when you consider how special still searching was. it's a shame because i think that a lot of the songs could've hit a lot harder.
that being said, this album still has some pretty good things going for it. a lot of the songs are more melodically-driven than anything, and senses fail has always done the more singing-based emo very well. there are some super pretty moments on the tracklist, like the choruses of "hair of the dog" and "four years." the lyrics, though they don't hit as hard as their previous releases (doesn't come CLOSE to let it enfold you), are characteristically good. i can't say i've listened to this album enough to be able to quote most of the songs by memory, but i remember for sure the lyrics of "lungs like gallows," which are incredible and some of the best lyrics they've ever written. of course, the lines the song was titled after, "there are gallows deep inside my lungs / that's where i hung ambition." and some of my favorite poetry work ever, the two verse-opening lines: "i give blood to prove to myself that i can matter to someone else" and "i give blood not for the cause but to slowly give up the person i was." and while i'm on this song, the little breakdown thing? ugh. the little "i don't need her, i'm not that desperate" makes me so happy, both lyrics and music.
so really what i'm saying is... it's fine. new to senses fail? listen to still searching instead. done with that one? listen to let it enfold you and from the depths of dreams. don't listen to this one before those three. life is not a waiting room is a fine emo album, the songs are done well and the lyrics are good, but it really doesn't hold up compared to the kinds of albums i'd recommend to people. you can cry to it, but an emo album is more than that. lmao. besides, if you want to cry for forty five minutes, that's what let it enfold you is for.
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