Chicago punk veterans Alkaline Trio have done it again with their ninth studio album, My Shame is True. This release “Hides behind your eyes; I can feel it in my bones” and “It’s come to tenderize is all tonight with sticks and stones.” My Shame is True contains some of Trio’s best work yet and has a similar feel to their Good Mourning album in terms of freshness and quality of songs. The album kicks off hard with the poppy, Ramones-esque “She Lied to the FBI, which is truly Trio’s “the KKK Took My Baby Away,” and is more addictive than heroine but I’ll never kick this addiction.



Singer/Guitarist Matt Skiba really shines on this record. Each of his songs are incredible, very catchy and moving, and emotionally powerful, despite what Scott Heisel of AP Magazine has to say. The first few times giving My Shame a listen, I was sadly disappointed with Dan Andriano’s contributions. I felt as though he had saved his best material for The Emergency Room (his solo side project), but, after giving his songs another chance on the train, I have found that this is simply NOT the case. While I admit I am genuinely shocked by Andriano’s current approached to his songwriting, his material on this album, specifically “Only Love” track is worth a listen and a chance. You did it again Dan, sorry for doubting you.



It’s hard to see how anyone can call this album “boring” with catchy lyrical clinics such as “Midnight Blue” and “the Torture Doctor.” Me not being even close to a Rise Against fan, even “I, Pessimist” (which he guests on) is OK. “Until Death Do Us Part” really takes the album home and leaves you with a tar in each eye and a hole in your heart.

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Is My Shame is True a boring album? No, not even close. Nor is it “white noise.” It is Alkaline Trio at it’s finest. Sorry, Scott.



Best song – “Until Death Do Us Part”
Runner Up – “She Lied to the FBI”
Underdog – “Midnight Blue”