Alkaline Trio - Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs (2024) Hi Res

Amazingly, 26 years and 10 albums in, Alkaline Trio still has enough punk puns in their back pocket to kick off an album with "Hot for Preacher." Of course, anything less would be disappointing, and this is not a band who made their bones by failing to deliver what fans expect. That sense of familiarity makes Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs an easy-to-grok record but also makes it something of a predictable one. The gang choruses, energetic pop-punk harmonies, and stop-start dynamics are all here, and, more notably, the core lineup of Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano is still intact, more than a quarter-century after the band's debut. (Longtime drummer Derek Grant departed soon after Blood's recording.) While it's clear on soaring, dynamic cuts like "Shake With Me" and "Scars" that the band is still quite capable of crafting smart, anthemic punk rock, other tracks—the straightforward rocker "Broken Down in a Time Machine" or the meandering midtempo "Versions of You"—show that the band is content to let a kernel of an idea substitute for a fully thought-out composition. Punk rock being punk rock, this is far from a cardinal sin, and Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs is a remarkably strong album that manages to balance the band's status as elder eminences with the inherent limitations of the form. Album closer "Teenage Heart" could have been a dull bit of nostalgia—or worse, a weak-sauce attempt to connect with "the kids"—but instead it finds the band reflective on the sad state of affairs in the country. A chorus like "All I want for Christmas is an AR-15/ My stocking stuffed with fentanyl" would have been gimmicky and trite in lesser hands, but Alkaline Trio are wearied, wizened warriors who refuse to give up the fight.