Album Review: Silverstein – I Am Alive in Everything I Touch
3 min read
Silverstein albums usually have some kind of concept around them. It could be as simple as keeping every song under 2 minutes long as they did on Short Songs, or pairing songs to tell two-part stories as they did on This Is How the Wind Shifts. I Am Alive in Everything I Touch continues this trend, with the album being split into four three track long chapters, each themed after a different region with each song being set in a different city in that region.
It’s an interesting concept, made even more intriguing as the album opens with Toronto (abridged), which is approximately fifty seconds of ambient noise, acting as a short introduction to the album. Rather than lead into something similarly quiet, it’s immediately followed up with A Midwestern State of Emergency, which instead sounds like classic Silverstein; it feels a little empty and the vocal delivery isn’t entirely convincing, but it still serves its purpose.
The more you listen to the album, the more it starts to feel like a normal Silverstein album. The songs cover the range of post-hardcore styles, with only A Midwestern State of Emergency and Heaven, Hell and Purgatory feeling awkward on the album. Face of the Earth’s place between these songs makes the early segment of the album feel much better. While the previously mentioned songs either feel too empty or simply strange with their production, Face of the Earth stands out as the album’s most memorable song, mixing the strong hooks in the chorus and an adequately padded arrangement to make something that feels much more satisfying.
Most of the album follows suit. While nothing is really on the level of Face of the Earth, Je me Souviens makes a valiant attempt to match it, and comes close. The level of energy and the melodies and hooks in the chorus make it another album stand-out, though not quite on an equal level; If Face of the Earth is the best the album has to offer, this is easily the runner up. Third place goes to Toronto (unabridged), the acoustic ending for the album with accompanying strings, which leads into a heavier arrangement near the end. It has the most interesting production on the album, though isn’t quite as engaging.
The lyrics of the album don’t vary much, often revolving around feelings of loneliness and how it ties into the concept of the album being set in different places, which doesn’t make for entirely inventive writing but is pulled off well enough that it doesn’t really matter. The clichéd muffled spoken word segments in Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and Milestone are the only major mistakes made here. The concept of the album makes this a bigger issue than it usually would be, but it doesn’t ruin the album.
And in the end, the album does recover from its rocky start. While it’s not groundbreaking material, it’s strong enough to stand on its own and remain interesting throughout. I Am Alive in Everything I Touch is another solid offering from Silverstein.
