Midnight In America

“Throughout the history of punk, just when it seems like the scene has turned into a wave of mediocre soundalike bandwagon jumpers, some band releases an album that gives grizzled old scene veterans hope that at least someone out there still gets it. The third full-length by Modern Life Is War is, on the surface, not really all that different from releases by any number of similar post-hardcore acts, but Midnight in America has enough personality to make it interesting on its own merits. There's an unexpected bluesy vibe to this album, not in the imitative Jack White way, but more in the tradition of the Gun Club and the Birthday Party, two early-'80s {post-punk} acts whose fondness for corrosive noise was filtered through a warped extension of early {Delta blues}. It makes sense, really: after all, what is blues but the original emo? Modern Life Is War don't really sound anything like the Gun Club or the Birthday Party -- and despite their update/first-person revision of the standard Stagger Lee, no one will ever mistake them for Mississippi John Hurt -- but singer Jeffrey Eaton has a similarly haunted tone to his vocals, and the melodic hardcore of the band's previous releases has been slowed down, scuzzed up, and allowed to breathe in a way that enhances the songs' hooks. The addition of two minute-long slices of old-school hardcore, the anti-nostalgia Fuck the Sex Pistols and Pendulum, only reinforces the musical depth of superior tracks like the opening Useless Generation and the righteous spleen of The Motorcycle Boy Reigns.” ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide