Unglued Reviews

The Used’s second album opens and closes with two slices of metal-influenced emo-punk (Take It Away and I’m A Fake respectively). But in between those two points, there’s no simple straight connecting line. Sure, there are further explosive, wall-of-guitar tracks like Listening, and frontman Bert McCracken’s vocals can frequently be described as impassioned wails. But Cut Up Angels is a light, summery pop tune (albeit with macabre gothic lyrics), Yesterday’s Feelings is gentle and soft, Hard To Say is subdued and relaxed, and Lunacy Fringe is positively jaunty.

All That I’ve Got combines the two extremes, producing a rock solid anthem perfectly designed for an arena of heart-broken kids to sway and sing along to. As with many of the other tracks, there also are lots of little touches buried in the mix (such as keyboards and background voices) that reward repeated listening.

The amazing thing is that even when the light poppy songs are directly interspersed with vicious assaults like the aptly named Sound Effects and Overdramatics, the album still holds together. An entire record of feverish emotional outbursts would be ridiculous (the histrionic opening to I’m A Fake is a little hard to take seriously as it is), but by exploring different sounds and emotions, The Used have created a more impressive palette and ultimately a pretty damn good record.

Owen Heitmann