{"id":7630,"date":"2023-02-01T13:37:45","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T13:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=7630"},"modified":"2023-02-01T13:37:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T13:37:48","slug":"conditions-of-a-punk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/01\/conditions-of-a-punk\/","title":{"rendered":"Conditions of a Punk"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Summer Into Fall\u2014and That\u2019s All<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Alternative band Half\u2022Alive\u2019s sophomore effort delivers on cool sounds and poetic lyrics\u2014but it lacks the sense of hope that buoyed their first album.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Review by Jack Hadley<\/em><\/p>

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When I discovered Half\u2022Alive\u2019s music in December 2019, I had crested the first happy summits of adulthood\u2014finishing a master\u2019s degree, marrying my dream woman\u2014and entered a valley of intense frustration. I was a new infantry officer in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia. Only six months into a dreadfully long six-year military service commitment, I regretted allowing Uncle Sam to pay for my schooling. Next month I would be attending the U.S. Army Ranger School: 60-plus days of patrolling under heavy rucksacks in all weather conditions on reduced food, minimal sleep, and no outside contact. I told myself I wanted nothing to do with Ranger School or this new military profession. Yet, paradoxically, I was heavy with fear that I would fail.<\/p>

In this combustible mental state, I stumbled onto Half\u2022Alive. I was at the airport en route home for the holidays, exhausted. A curious YouTube thumbnail for Half\u2022Alive\u2019s music video \u201cstill feel<\/a>\u201d grabbed my attention. Three white dudes in short sleeve button downs and khakis, frozen serenely in unison mid-dance, on a palette of dusky orange-browns\u2014nothing felt further from my own day-to-day Army experiences. How could this possibly have 30 million views?<\/em><\/p>

The music instantly captured me. Dynamic percussion, electronic flourish\u2014the attractive, subdued brightness of their SoCal alternative style. Then, on a second listen, I was overwhelmed by their lyrics\u2019 insight into my present state:<\/p>

Trying to recognize myself when I feel I’ve been replaced,
<\/em>I can feel a kick down in my soul
<\/em>And it’s pulling me back to Earth to let me know
<\/em>I am not a slave, can’t be contained
<\/em>So pick me from the dark and pull me from the grave, ’cause\u2014
<\/em>I still feel alive<\/em><\/p>

I downloaded the whole album and listened on repeat until Ranger School.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Around two-thirds of the album\u2019s 18 tracks are repeatable bops.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Half\u2022Alive released their highly anticipated second studio album, Conditions of a Punk<\/em>, on December 2, 2022. In the three-plus years since their first album (and the \u201cstill feel\u201d music video), their fanbase grew to an impressive 2 million monthly Spotify listeners, and they opened for Twenty One Pilots\u2019s Takeover <\/em>Tour. Album pre-releases teased fans for almost 18 months as its scope expanded and expectations (mine included) ratcheted upward.<\/p>

In our world that unfairly expects \u201cthe same, but different\u201d of artists\u2019 sophomore performances, Conditions of a Punk <\/em>still delivered. For starters, the album is musically phenomenal. COAP<\/em>\u2019s production is Half\u2022Alive\u2019s richest yet, carrying again that cool-but-not-too-cool alternative energy and crescendoing with eclectic instrumentation. The opening title track flows seamlessly between fluttering verse piano runs and lush, rhythmic refrains. The ethereal seven-four time signature in \u201cMove Me\u201d is fresh but not distracting, a rare musical accomplishment. \u201cNobody\u201d combines spare electronic percussion, chaotic synth funk, and gargling auxiliary vocals behind neurotic melodies. Around two-thirds of the album\u2019s 18 tracks are repeatable bops.<\/p>

But Half\u2022Alive\u2019s excellence, and the real reason to listen to COAP<\/em>, is their soul-baring lyrics, maturing in complexity alongside their music. \u201cNever Been Better\u201d (featuring Orla Gartland) sarcastically grapples with the duplicitous outward projection of success.<\/p>

At the top\u2014\u201cCongratulations!\u201d
<\/em>Heart so full I know I\u2019ll break it\u2026
<\/em>Scared of all the dreams I\u2019m chasing
<\/em>I\u2019m on the edge, like I said, I\u2019ve
<\/em>Never been better<\/em><\/p>

\u201cSummerland\u201d is an excited incantation of summer love, and a grieved recognition of its fleetingness.<\/p>

But something about May makes it all feel better, baby
<\/em>Summerland holds what I want right now
<\/em>It\u2019s like the hoodie you find and you wear forever, baby
<\/em>Whatever ain\u2019t golden now will only come back around<\/em><\/p>

\u201cNobody\u201d is a harrowing dual confession, both a sardonic admission of self-centeredness and an honest diary of personal obscurity.<\/p>

Moving up the ladder doesn\u2019t really matter, as long as I\u2019m in the lead\u2026
<\/em>Playing this game, it\u2019s easy to lose both ways
<\/em>Yeah, it\u2019s hard to be someone\u2014and it hurts to be nobody<\/em><\/p>

Evoking \u201890s west coast rap sampling vibes, \u201cDid I Make You Up?\u201d juxtaposes the confidence of a nascent relationship with lyrics searching for post\u2013break up answers.<\/p>

You\u2019re clearly disconnected, so who am I connected to?
<\/em>Some person you projected\u2014were you ever telling me the truth?<\/em><\/p>

Other reviewers<\/a> and lead singer Josh Taylor himself have emphasized<\/a> the album\u2019s thematic focus on failed romance. This is true, although the album is also more than that. It\u2019s an exploration of the painful paroxysms of the modern young adult heart, across life\u2019s various but connected domains. The album\u2019s recurring metaphor of summer turning into fall captures the reality of suffering and the paradox of progress\u2014the necessity of pruning a youthful punk\u2019s ego, even dying to oneself.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The summer-into-fall metaphor never gives birth to the vitality of spring, here or anywhere on the album.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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To understand the meaning and significance of COAP, <\/em>we must also compare it to Half\u2022Alive\u2019s first studio album, Now, Not Yet. NNY <\/em>was a cerebral reflection on the tensions of Christian existence, both admitting struggle and attaining hopefulness. Hit song \u201cstill feel,\u201d quoted above, is one emblematic example. NNY<\/em>\u2019s final, climatic song \u201ccreature\u201d is another, concluding: \u201cSlowly I\u2019m recovering \/ the beauty of discovering.\u201d<\/p>

COAP<\/em>\u2019s near-exclusive focus on pain, by contrast, reduces the heavenward pull of their lyrics. Of the 18 tracks, only \u201cHigh Up\u201d reflects on the hopefulness of grace. And unfortunately, its lyrics, judged by the high standard Half\u2022Alive has set for themselves, are subpar. Tracks \u201cHot Tea\u201d and \u201cMove Me\u201d artfully pair lurid love imagery with “you” pronouns that could<\/em> point to a loving God\u2014or just as easily to a human lover. The lack of clarity makes them near-misses. The refrain from \u201cBack Around\u201d also offers partial but incomplete glimmers of hope:<\/p>

I’ve been on my own, changing with the seasons
<\/em>Dying with the leaves, I’m coming back around
<\/em>Little did I know, start to see the meaning
<\/em>Find what I believe is coming back now<\/em><\/p>

This chorus appears to end optimistically. Even a later back-up vocal further offers, \u201cNo season [of lostness] lasts forever.\u201d Yet the summer-into-fall metaphor never gives birth to the vitality of spring, here or anywhere on the album. If one is still dying with the leaves, have they really come \u201cback around\u201d? Thus the album\u2019s final song concludes: \u201cWhere is the road? I got so lost.\u201d<\/p>

COAP <\/em>therefore meets pain primarily with obfuscation, vacillation, or despair. This lopsided treatment of pain is unfortunate, because Half\u2022Alive has historically served as a uniquely wise and nuanced Christian voice on the tensions of earthly life. This nuance is particularly important in today\u2019s quagmire of coarse opinions and digital diatribes. On one hand, the Church often fails to listen or empathize. It prefers to avoid ambiguity, diminish the reality of suffering, and offer premature platitudes about the \u201chope we have in Christ\u201d to questions not yet understood. On the other hand, our prevailing modernist artistic culture, from Kurt Vonnegut to Billie Eilish, addresses pain with penetrating thoroughness\u2014yet rarely offers real hope. The perceptive COAP <\/em>listener is left feeling modernism\u2019s characteristic gnawing hollowness. This is a great loss compared to what Half\u2022Alive\u2019s sophomore album might have otherwise been.<\/p>

Even so, Conditions of a Punk <\/em>is a must-listen album. Despite any of my disappointments with the album as a whole, \u201cBack Around\u201d was my number one most listened to track of 2022. What can I say\u2014it\u2019s great music. After all, who are we to demand philosophical or spiritual nourishment from an alternative<\/em> band? We can merely hope that their next album will mark another change in seasons, a refreshing rebirth from winter into spring. Maybe even a true coming-back-around.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Jack Hadley<\/strong> is an Army officer stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He has a master\u2019s in philosophy from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, obtained on a Fulbright Scholarship. Only an amateur musician, he\u2019s married to (professional) songwriter\/composer Jenna Cox-Hadley.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Conditions of a Punk<\/strong> was released by RCA Records on December 2, 2022. You can listen to it wherever music is streaming, or buy a copy from the artists here<\/a>. <\/em>
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Alternative band Half\u2022Alive\u2019s sophomore effort delivers on cool sounds and poetic lyrics\u2014but it lacks the sense of hope that buoyed their first 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