The Quad

Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: Entertainment

Say Anything's new album "In Defense of the Genre" assumes the flagship position of album releases in its class this season. Frontman Max Bemis proves his prowess through vocal variety and shows his exceptional ability in an artful construction of lyrics that reflects the eccentric mind of a maniac.

This time around the band thoroughly diversifies its sound, making the album stand out amongst its contemporaries in the genre. Through brilliant use of unconventional metaphors combined with shockingly direct statements, Bemis continues the epic of his frenzied life, as the story speaks of what has occurred since "…Is a Real Boy." With a succession of prolific albums, Say Anything is continually building itself up higher than achievements passed.

Though in existence since 2001, the band made its popular entry onto the music scene in 2005 with their album "…Is a Real Boy." The album included the singles "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too" and "Alive with the Glory of Love," the latter being featured during the sixth season finale of "Scrubs."

The discrepancy between the two singles' titles is furthered by their content. One is a semi-biographical illustration about Bemis' grandparents during the Holocaust, the other about phone-sex. During their tenure as a band, Say Anything has since shown their competence among the genre's front-runners, touring with bands such as Saves The Day, Dashboard Confessional, My Chemical Romance and Thrice.

Despite these accomplishments, or perhaps because of them, two of the band's tours in 2005 were canceled due to Bemis' continuous nervous breakdowns. Bemis hit his low point as he began to wander the streets of Brooklyn, illegitimately convinced that he was being constantly videotaped.

Eventually, he was found by his girlfriend, with no phone and no money, after becoming involved in a physical altercation with a stranger. This event prompted the 23-year-old singer/songwriter's six-week institutionalization. Later Bemis writes in the song "This is …Ecstasy," "The cameras follow me for miles/Born a slave in 1984."

The album begins with a trifecta of exceptional songs. The first track, "Skinny Mean Man" is exemplary of an abusive and controlling relationship that many of us have seen in our friends at some point in our lives. The narrator, Bemis, plays the one who loves the abusee stating "If only you'd start breathing, I'd court you exclusively." Bemis implies that her relationship with this 'skinny, mean man' is equivalent to death, and that he would date her if she were to break away from his breath-taking control.

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