It’s been two years since the success of “Megalomania” and a lot has changed since – the most noteworthy being the break with their management. Since then the band has dealt with everything themselves – promotion as well as organizing, and now lastly, producing their album completely on their own, letting them control everything and get exactly the sound they want. “Generation Goodbye” is a eleven songs long album that, according to guitarist Ande, “represents a feeling of longing, break up and a new start”. With this information in hand, it’s safe to say that the album is probable the most honest and genuine album they have produced so far.
I have two things to say about this album: Musically, it’s a roller coaster ride from start to finish. It starts off initiating, the music almost preparing you for dystopia with bombastic choruses telling you “Here we are, here we stand”, giving you this doomsday feeling, before being sped up and taking off with “Hashtag Your Life”, then slowing down in the powerballad “If Clocks Were Running Backwards” before going up the rails again only to unleash in “She Came, She Saw”, only to be slowed down again for “Masterpiece”, taking off and then dying out in the serene, but bombastic “Utopia”, draining you on the little mental energy you have left.
Lyrically, however, it’s a clear battlefield. The lyrics goes from, practically criticizing society in songs like “Generation Goodbye” and “Hashtag Your Life” to heartbreaking songs about lost love in “If Clocks Were Running Backwards”. There are songs about being a warrior in your own private battlefield – your life – in songs like “Somebody to Hate”, as well as a few partyhymns.
My personal favorite song on this album is “She came, She saw”. A seductive piece of music who sends you into the deepest corner of the filthiest stripclub you can find, being conquered of the feeling of wanting something you can’t have. The music is stirring up emotions in you, leading you in on this seductive path leaving you drained in the climax of the chorus.
It’s a pretty solid album – but it’s not necessarily better, nor worse, than the previous one. Aside some heavier lyric material, it’s not a lot of surprises. While most of the songs are very good – and they are really good – it sadly leaves the “bad” songs a bit more mediocre, leaving the album a little bit scattered for my opinion. And I’m not sure how I feel about them repeating the same trick in almost every song -It’s leaving it a little bit predictable, you know?
Overall, it’s a good album. It’s a very enjoyable album, the different songs keeping it interested while listening to it in a whole go. And like I said – the good songs are really, REALLY good, which make it worth it! I’d recommend it, most certainly if you are into 80’s kind of rock.
// Sara
Sara Hammerzmith 