La Dispute are back.
This September, La Dispute are gracing the holes in our ears with a full-length album. This will be the band’s fifth studio album and their first in six years. Astonishingly, this will be the first album the band have produced entirely themselves as they all now live in different parts of the globe. Since their formation in Michigan way back in 2004, La Dispute have discreetly traversed a complex ocean of musical styles. Frontman Jordan Dreyer has expressed his dislike of boxing art into categories, and this has always shown through La Dispute’s music. In previous years, because of their prolific use of spoken-word poetry, vast emotional presence and Dreyer’s ability to swap singing and screaming at a whim, I would have placed them into the melodic hardcore bracket. Now I am older and dare I say wiser (at least musically), I know things just aren’t that simple.
No One Was Driving The Car will officially be released under Epitaph Records on Friday 5th September. The first observation I will make is that this album has been released in Acts. Back in May we were treated to the first three songs on the album under Act I. The following month, we received Act II – ‘Environmental Catastrophe Film’. Then Act III came in July, consisting of Tracks 5 through 9, and finally Act IV in August, tracks 10, 11 and 12.
This means the only tracks left to come out on the album’s official release date will be the final two tracks. The title track ‘No One Was Driving The Car’ and ‘End Times Sermon’ closing out. I feel as though releasing the album in these Acts is a somewhat peculiar choice. Excitement and tension will always fill an upcoming album release. Fans will cling onto and obsess over how the album will sound and what emotions will fill their space as they listen to it for the first time. I feel like releasing all but two tracks on the album before the album’s official launch has eroded that excitement and taken away some of the special feelings surrounding September 5th for their fans. From a collector’s point of view, this was probably a great idea as you can collect physical media for all four Acts and finally the full album. However, in a world where streaming is king, it seems like an odd choice, at least from a sales perspective.
Now, please don’t be discouraged by the statement I made in the last paragraph. I also have a compelling, and arguably stronger reason as to why releasing this album in Acts was a fantastic idea.
Dreyer found the title for this album whilst reading a quote in a news article about a killer self-driving Tesla. The imagery that surrounds this album is that we have very little control over what happens in our own lives. Accompanied by the rise of multi-billion dollar tech companies and the drastic decline in social values, we as a species are in a worse spot than we have ever been before. A notion that I share whole-heartedly. With this said I feel that the choice to release the album in Acts is indeed a deliberate one that is symbolic to the fact we have seen all the warning signs of our impending doom, yet we have chosen not to do anything about them and eventually it will be too late. I believe this theory has some weight to it, especially if you consider La Dispute artists much more than they are musicians.
Now, let’s talk about the music. Imagine the soundtrack to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) had simply had enough and dived headfirst into nihilism. That’s what you get on this album, and it’s a beautiful thing to behold. The distorted bass guitar tone found present throughout is so grotesquely pleasant. Mix this with the clean guitar arpeggios and Dreyer’s poetry that steadily climbs the ladder of aggression and you get the masterpiece that is ‘Environmental Catastrophe Film’.
Standing at a staggering 8 minutes 42 seconds, La Dispute have structured this song incredibly well. The longest song on the album does not feel like a slog, like many other songs out there over the 6 minutes mark. It starts by slowly building the adrenaline before hitting full power and then bringing you back down again later. This song does not feel like 8 minutes as it pulls you in completely and takes you on a ride.
Across the album’s 14 tracks, we find a prolific use of spoken word, poetry, combative screamed lyrics, exquisite instrumentation across several guitar tones both electric and acoustic. No One Was Driving The Car is a masterclass in total immersive escapism that also grips you and plunges you into the harsh realities we are facing in today’s society. A translucent, kaleidoscopic oxymoron.
La Dispute: Instagram | Linktree
Review by Kane McEvoy
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