When he’s not producing and writing with some of the biggest pop stars on the planet – his work with the likes of Taylor Swift, Lorde and Lana Del Rey has made him a serious player – Jack Antonoff is the frontman of Bleachers.
He has overhauled his personal life since the indie band’s third album, in 2021, and by all accounts his newfound bliss – he married Margaret Qualley, the actor daughter of Andie MacDowell, last year – has informed his songwriting. The quietly murmured Me Before You explores the selflessness required of a successful relationship; the acoustic twang of Woke Up Today documents how it feels to “get what you want” in life (a “strange kind of rush”, in case you were wondering).
Although Antonoff’s sentiment is sincere, his lyrics all too often feel like an afterthought. Alma Mater, written with and featuring the aforementioned Del Rey, is one of several songs whose words sound like collections of meaningless phrases thrown together (“Some dreams are meant to die / Kill your idols in the street outside in daylight / ’Cos if we walk we’ll get high tonight”). The meandering We Are Going to Know Each Other Forever asks the ridiculous (presumably not rhetorical) question “Does anyone leave their hometown and actually survive?” while Jesus Is Dead, partly a paean to the Meet Me in the Bathroom-era NYC music scene, sees him declare: “Jesus is dead and so’s New York.”
It doesn’t help that the musical scaffolding of this album feels tenuous at best. Antonoff has never shied away from his influences, but it seems he is leaning on them rather than into them on this occasion. I Am Right on Time, the album’s opening track, takes a Springsteenesque line in atmospheric balladry, but Modern Girl throws itself headlong into full E Street Band territory, with its saxophone soloing and 1980s-style production.
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At other junctures, particularly with the soft synthrock and woolly production of Self Respect and Call Me After Midnight, this could easily pass for an album by The 1975; that Bleachers are now signed to the English band’s label is apparently no coincidence.
It’s not all bad. Its lyrics apart, the 1970s new wave of Jesus Is Dead is a highlight, while Tiny Moves is an exercise in sharp, snappy synth-pop. Yet not even the presence of some of Antonoff’s friends in the writing credits – Del Rey, Florence Welch and Aaron Dessner among them – can prevent this album from petering out with a disengaged whimper, followed by yet another unnecessary saxophone solo.
