Search - :: Dear You

My favorite album ever by anyone

jds7058@garnet.acns.fsu.edu | Cincinnati, OH | 03/27/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album means so much to me. I have been buying all kinds of music for years...I have such a big collection...but this one remains my favorite. It got me through high school and now it's helping me through college. The lyrics are incredibly multi-layered and the delivery is both powerful and soft. The music is tough and crunchy one second, sadly beautiful the next. A classic...a masterpiece...very very very very underrated. You could say the songs are about heartbreak, but you can apply them to all aspects of life. Every song is perfect. Great recording quality. So good."

Jawbreaker: Dear You

Mark Masi (Floyd12@Prodigy.Net) | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania | 08/16/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jawbreaker's final album is an alt-rock masterpiece. Rob Cavallo (who has produced Green Day's last few albums) produced 'Dear You.' Much like his work with that band, he "beefed-up" Jawbreaker's sound. If 'Unfun' is Lo-Fi, 'Dear You' is Hi-Fi. Of course production techniques mean nothing if the songs aren't good. These songs are good though. Very good. The shifting dynamics of "Accident Prone" make it a standout cut while the eerie Christopher Walken sample only adds to the bleak, but beautiful, "Jet Black." "Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault" is an uptempo rocker about seeing an old friend at a loud party and realizing that some things never change. Lyrically, this album exhibits some of Blake's best writing. For example, the first line of "Oyster"...("The world is an oyster, locked in a shell - You like the taste of it, but can't take the smell.") The lyric sheet alone is worth your money. 'Dear You' is a good example of why Jawbreaker were one of the better underground bands of the 1990's."

When it pains it roars

Mark Masi (Floyd12@Prodigy.Net) | 07/28/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I guess this album's only available as an import now that the band's broken up. For those of you who don't know, this album was the swan song of one of the last bands that convincingly brought together the designations "punk" and "emo" (Shyster, from Florida, is another). In fact, there's probably no other punk band, outside of Fugazi, that had such a diverse yet loyal fan base. For all its punk points, though, ("1,2,3,4-- who's punk, what's the score?") Jawbreaker has always essentially been an amazing pop band. They started as the smartest kids on Gilman St., home of future rock stars Green Day and Rancid. Lit. major lyricist Blake Schwartzenbach wrote the tearjerkers and scorchers of the scene and while they haven't influenced quite as many new school punk bands as some of their contemporaries, Jawbreaker's influenced all the good ones. "Dear You" is a departure for the band. The vocals are cleaner (think Psychedelic Fur! s) and the music is more focused (think the 2nd Foo Fighters album). Although these particular features of the album were initial subjects of derision for even the most dedicated of the jawbroken, fans soon figured it out. The lyrics are better ("Unlisted Track"), more cutting ("Sluttering, May 4th"), and revelatory ("Fireman") than anything Blake's written before. Taken together, its the bitterest break up album in the genre, but also the best. Now that Jawbreaker's gone and we have the pleasure of seeing Blake in a new band-- Jets to Brazil (which honestly sounds like a cross between , surprise, the Psychedelic Furs and the 2nd Foo Fighters album), we can better understand "Dear You" and its importance in the development of a talented pop lyricist."