Dear You
Dear You is the fourth studio album by American punk rock band Jawbreaker, released on September 12, 1995, through DGC Records.
Dear You
While promoting their third studio album 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (1994), Jawbreaker was approached by Geffen Records. After securing management, they signed to the label and started recording what would be their major label debut at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, with producer Rob Cavallo. While bassist Chris Bauermeister and drummer Adam Pfahler recorded their respective parts within a few days, frontman Blake Schwarzenbach did his parts over six weeks in February and March 1995.
Mainly described as an emo, pop-punk and punk rock album, Dear You returns to the darker sound of Jawbreaker's second album Bivouac (1992). The lyrics largely revolve around the aftermath of the relationship that was the inspiration for 24 Hour Revenge Therapy; others, such as "Save Your Generation" and "Chemistry", deal with slacker culture and attending school, respectively. Unlike previous releases, Dear You sees Schwarzenbach sing more instead of scream: his vocals evoked Morrissey, while the overall band was compared to the work of Green Day, Jawbox and Nirvana.
Dear You was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics, many of whom praised the album's sound and highlighted the lyrics. It peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart in the United States. There, it would sell 40,000 copies by 2002. "Fireman" was released as the album's lead single in August 1995; Jawbreaker embarked on the Monsters of Jaw tour with Jawbox, and then toured Australia as part of the Summersault festival. "Accident Prone" was released as the next single by April 1996, which was promoted with a supporting slot for the Foo Fighters. Following a fist fight between Bauermeister and Schwarzenbach, Jawbreaker announced their break up in July 1996.
Jawbreaker's fanbase was not receptive to Dear You at its release, criticizing its production; the decision to sign with a major label would overtake the album's content, becoming the narrative that dominated the press. Following the band's demise, fan perception changed to a positive one, as the album would become an influence on the next wave of emo and pop-punk artists. Many of Dear You songs would feature on tribute albums in the ensuing years, and several publications included it on best-of emo album lists. After going out of print, Pfahler's label Blackball Records would reissue it in 2004. Jawbreaker would eventually embark on a celebratory tour of the album in 2022.
Background[edit]
Jawbreaker released their third studio album 24 Hour Revenge Therapy in February 1994 through Tupelo Recording Company and The Communion Label.[1] It was quickly overshadowed by the popularity of Dookie (1994) by Green Day and Smash (1994) by the Offspring, both of which pushed pop-punk and punk rock into the mainstream.[2][3] In turn, major labels wanted to replicate the success of these two releases with bands of their own, taking acts from the underground.[4] A month before the album's release, vocalist and guitarist Blake Schwarzenbach taped demos of songs that would appear on the band's fourth album, including one of "Jet Black".[5] Jawbreaker began playing 500-capacity venues as a result, on their seven-week tour of the United States in March.[6] During this trek, they debuted five new songs, such as "Accident Prone" and "Basilica", two ballads in the vein of their second album Bivouac (1992), and "Shirt" and "Sister", two 24 Hour Revenge Therapy-styled romantic songs.[7]
They received backlash from readers of the punk zine Maximum Rocknroll and people in the East Bay region of San Francisco, California. The band were already being criticized for touring with Nirvana sometime prior, as well as for dropping their earlier material from their live shows and Schwarzenbach's voice changing as a result of throat surgery.[8] While this was occurring, Tupelo and Communion struggled to tackle demand from fans and press.[9] Jawbreaker went on a short, ten-day tour on the US West Coast with Jawbox in July 1994; the members of the former asked the latter about their experiences with major label Atlantic Records.[10] Shortly after this, they recorded a demo of "I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both".[11] Jawbreaker was then approached by Geffen Records; around this time, they became aware that other labels were interested in them.[12]
Composition and lyrics[edit]
Overview[edit]
Musically, Dear You has been mainly described as emo,[23][24][25] pop-punk,[23][26][27][28][29] and punk rock.[24][30][31] It has also been tagged as alternative rock,[23] indie rock,[32] and grunge,[24][29] though Chris Norris of Spin discounted the latter, including it on a list of albums that were marketed as grunge despite not being so.[33] Schwarzenbach's vocals evoked Morrissey,[34] while the band were compared to the work of Green Day, Jawbox and Nirvana.[35] Songs from earlier albums, such as "Bivouac" from Bivouac and "Conditional Oakland" from 24 Hour Revenge Therapy hinted at the gloomy direction that the band would explore on "Accident Prone" and "Jet Black". Givony said these two tracks evoked the work of Built to Spill, Spiritualized and Swervedriver instead of the Jawbreaker that made their debut album Unfun (1990) or 24 Hour Revenge Therapy.[36] Dear You returned to the darker tone of Bivouac, though without that album's ambitious songwriting.[37]
Following the release of Bivouac, the band received a letter from a friend that stated, "you can't dance to pain", which Pfahler loved and wanted to name Dear You that instead of its final title.[38] While 24 Hour Revenge Therapy was about a relationship with one person, Dear You dealt with the aftermath of that.[39] In an Alternative Press interview, Schwarzenbach called it the "death album", referring to the issues with his romantic life and the death of his close friends.[18] In a 2022 interview, he said he had gone through years of "wrestling with pretty brutal depression [...] I can see my diagnosis is pretty clearly in a lot of those lyrics".[40] Schwarzenbach said the band were aiming to expand their musical palette, or else they would have broken up. Previously, the energy of performing would be the driving factor of the band's creativity; Schwarzenbach found it difficult screaming constantly as he explained: "I had to live the part of the brute in order to sing about it".[9] He decided to sing more instead of scream, and subsequently wrote material in sing-able keys that would allow him better vocal control.[18]
Tracks[edit]
The album's opening track, "Save Your Generation", deals with slacker culture and being a pessimist.[41] In a retrospective review for Gibson, writer Jonah Bayer said it exemplifies the album's sound: "a melodic pop sensibility that's augmented with buzzing Les Pauls, driving drums, and [...] Schwarzenbach's signature one-liners". "Fireman" consists of a single-note guitar riff in the style of Nirvana.[30] With it, Schwarzenbach reimagines himself as a tidal wave that impacts the coastline that his ex-girlfriend lives on. He explained that while in his residence in Oakland, he wanted to see how "callous I could get. I allowed myself to think really terrible thoughts, and that's just what came out".[9] Richmond Times-Dispatch writer Ryan Self said the song was a "stark and disarming tale of lost love and revenge that'll make you think twice about those old boyfriends or girlfriends".[35] Michael Nelson of Stereogum wrote that in "Accident Prone", Jawbreaker emulated the "weight of a thousand guitars to hammer home a battering ram of a chorus and a stellar, sweeping bridge", with its big sound "heightening the intensity".[42] "Chemistry" is about Pfahler and Schwarzenbach attending Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California.[43] In the mid-tempo song "Million",[29] Schwarzenbach pines for a relationship that would operate like a recording contract.[44] An earlier version of "Lurker II: Dark Son of Night" had a 45-word title with lyrics that revolved around Boba Fett from Star Wars.[45]
Schwarzenbach said "Jet Black" was the "epitome of pathological white angst";[46] it opens and closes with a sample of Christopher Walken's character from Annie Hall (1977). Mischa Pearlman of Louder wrote that it comes across as a "nihilistic vision of [Walken's] own apocalypse", which complimented the track's evaluation of "psychological and emotional damage".[47] The clip had been known as the answering message on Pfahler's telephone for a period of time before they decided to include it in the track.[48] To include it, they had to forfeit 25% of the publishing "and it was worth every cent of those eleven dollars".[49] "Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault" features exes doing better at making out with other people than the narrator at parties,[50] while "Sluttering (May 4th)" has two exes of Schwarzenbach connect over his lameness.[51] The mid-tempo track "Basilica" is followed by the acoustic track "Unlisted Track", which concludes the album.[29][52] Discussing "Shirt", Pfahler said Schwarzenbach wished they had recorded it in another musical key.[53] "Sister" describes an occasion where Schwarzenbach brought his sister along on tour with the band for two shows. Pfahler recalled that during this, they had a fight in the van and after 30 minutes of no talking, "someone turned to his sister and said, 'Well, this is the rock and roll lifestyle. Check it out!'".[17] "Friendly Fire", which acts as a musical bridge between Dear You and its predecessor,[25] deals with Schwarzenbach's paranoia around signing to a major label and seeing it as a fight for survival.[38]