Alkaline Trio - Good Mourning (2003)

Tracklist
1. This Could Be Love
2. We've Had Enough
3. 100 Stories
4. Continental
5. All On Black
6. Emma
7. Fatally Yours
8. Every Thug Needs A Lady
9. Blue Carolina
10. Donner Party
11. If We Never Go Inside
12. Blue In The Face

Though most of the songs on the Alkaline Trio's GOOD MOURNING don't seem to be literally about death, titles like "Fatally Yours" and "All On Black" (not to mention the pictures of crosses and white lilies that adorn the disc's packaging) suggest a rather fatalistic listening experience. In this case, first impressions are only partly accurate. Over the course of a half-dozen solid albums, the Alkaline Trio has positioned itself as a kind of anti-Blink 182; sonically, the band deals in the same stripped-down vocal harmony-laden pop-punk, but trades the lyrical frat boy frivolity for stark, serious ruminations on interpersonal relationships' most angst-ridden moments. Here, the trio continues to refine its approach, delivering every tune with a single-minded earnestness that practically defines the emo-core aesthetic.

2003 album produced by Jerry Finn (AFI, Green Day, Blink 182), the band has delivered another slice of dark, ominous punk rock with the signature trio lyrics. 12 tracks packaged in a Digipak. Vagrant.