Album Review: Rise Against - Nowhere Generation

I know a lot of Rise Against fans weren't completely sold on "Wolves", but as someone without much experience with the band, I found it to be a remarkable album that captured the anger of the moment in a collection of infectious songs. When I went back to try some of their more acclaimed work, the spark I heard was missing, and it seems there is a divide between the punk community and people like me, where a subtle difference in how they build their songs means only one of us at a time is going to be completely satisfied. The old fans want them to revert to form, while I would like to hear them continue on. Which path did they choose?

I was worried heading into the album, when the band put out a one-off single for a comic book that felt entirely uninspired. To have your first new music in a few years be in that forum, and sound so boring, was concerning to say the least. Putting it on the album afterward was even more of a red flag. The singles for the album didn't really lift my spirits that much either. The title track is a great, albeit safe, song, but "The Numbers" and "Talking To Ourselves" both feel like the dying embers of the fire "Wolves" radiated.

What surprises me the most about this record, I suppose, is the lack of righteous anger. The world did not become a better place since "Wolves" was released, so I'm quite puzzled how the band didn't have an abundance of subjects they needed to vent upon. On the opening track the lyrics sing about being bored, and perhaps no more needs to be said. The nowhere generation the album talks about has nothing left to give. They are worn out, depleted, and that's what this album sounds like. It's a band tired and going through the motions.

The disconnect comes in the tonality of the record. Both Tim McIlrath's rough vocals and the band's propulsive music are harbingers of anger and energy, but much of this record is introspective and self-reflective. While there have been punk-leaning bands doing that well in recent years, it doesn't feel as natural for Rise Against. It's a combination of how polished the production is, the narrow emotional range of McIlrath's voice, and the lack of explosive hooks to give us the catharsis we need. It's the dark storm cloud that never releases its energy in a lightning bolt.

There's another moment in the acoustic downer "Forfeit" where the lyrics sing about putting on a brave face. That only brings to mind last year's "Brave Faces Everyone" from Spanish Love Songs, which shares a tonality with Rise Against, but nailed everything that this album is lacking in. And with the arrangement so sparse that lyric stood out and couldn't be missed, it was a moment of self-harm that reminded me of exactly what this album should be, rather than what it is.

I know all of this sounds harsh, but that's only because of what I was hoping for. "Wolves" was one of my favorite records in 2017, and this year has been weak enough so far I was more than ready for another album to hit me in that way. "Nowhere Generation" doesn't come close to doing that. It's a perfectly fine album, and I'm going to give it the occasional spin throughout the year, but I will always consider it a step backward. Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if the usual fans are much happier this time, since I seem to be an outlier when it comes to this stuff.