Glassjaw - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence

Glassjaw
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence
2000

1. Pretty Lush
2. Siberian Kiss
3. When One Eight Becomes Two Zeros
4. Ry Ry's Song
5. Lovebites and Razorlines
6. Hurting and Shoving (She Should Have Let Me Sleep)
7. Majour
8. Her Middle Name Was Boom
9. Piano
10. Babe
11. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence
12. Hotel of the White Locust/Losten

I feel sorry for any girl who pisses off Daryl Palumbo. The chorus of the opening track 'Pretty Lush' spells out of the overall tone of the album in what might be the biggest lyrical bitch-slap in the scene.

'You can lead a whore to water, and you can bet she'll drink and follow orders.'

It gets even rougher from then on there. Palumbo's anger at his past relationship and his own affliction with Crohn's disease allows Glassjaw's debut album to set itself apart from it's counterparts. There's no subtle jabs here, more like hardened blows from a closed fist.

'I know a girl who sells herself around and I'm sure that one day she'll be signing autographs in your town.'

But with Palumbo's pain comes one of the best revenge albums of all time. There's not a song on the album that doesn't feel embedded with some kind of pain, and at times true beauty shines out of from the frantic, raving screaming and riffs. Glassjaw is a very melodic band, but I find it more fleshed out in Worship and Tribute than here. Still, these moments are probably some of the highlights of the album.

'His friends are good for bang-bang. An amiable hobby. She's got a secret. Just keep it and sleep with it.'