Goddammit

Tea pairing: Lemon ginger with honey

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When it comes to debut albums, it seldom gets better than Alkaline Trio’s 1998 effort Goddamnit.

Opening with the breakneck speed of “Cringe,” one is immediately delighted by the Chicago punk outfit’s dark imagery and witty lyrics as the two minute track details the loss of a lover and sleep all while comparing the pain to a rather awful plane ride.

The scratchy and tuneful guitars spill in as lead singer and lead sad boy, Matt Skiba, shouts his way through the first lines. Glenn Porter’s frantic drumming provides the pulse for this rather anthemic punk-emo rager and bassist Dan Andriano walks up and down his bass’s neck in effort to keep up with Porter and Skiba.

This is by no means a perfect album; in fact, it is rather messy. When recording the album in the summer of 1998, the vocals of “Message from Kathlene,’ “My Little Needle,” and “Trouble Breathing” were out of sync, as the backing vocals were recorded first while Skiba was nursing a sore throat from touring. However, the odd timing of some lines provided these tracks with a solid punk sound.

Goddamnit sets up the band’s later sounds as each track on the album welcomes their emo influenced punk sound with clever lyricism that harkens back to Jawbreaker’s frontman Blake Schwarznbach’s uncanny ability to paint a picture with his words, a la “Kiss The Bottle”.

But Trio does this without sacrificing their punk ability. Not to say Jawbreaker never did, but one could make the argument that their final album, the stellar Dear You, was a definite foray into the emo genre.

Alkaline Trio, and especially Matt Skiba, take cues from them and are able to assemble heart-on-your-sleeve songs with a loud punk bite that saves any song from being “wimpy” or “weak.” The tone of both Skiba and Andriano, who split lead vocals, craft distinct sounds for their respective tracks.

Andriano shines brightest on “Message from Kathlene” where he shouts “But you know I’m still here, the faithful one/Waiting for a message from Kathlene.” His delivery is raw and sincere in an angry, heartbroken way that is found in nearly each of the songs he leads on.

In the almost funny song, “Cop,” Skiba bashes the unmanned officer who allegedly caught him smoking pot in his car. This event is also the premise for their first recorded single “97.

Conversely, in “Trouble Breathing,” Alkaline Trio puts their emo side on full display with the chilling lines “It’s one or another between a rope and a bottle/I can tell you’re having trouble breathing.” With lines like that it is not hard to see that Matt and Dan are manic depressives who favor a bottle, and sometimes ponder the rope.

Goddamnit was written and recorded while Porter, Skiba, and Andriano were in their early 20s, living in a punk house of sorts where they and close friends Brendan Kelly and Chris McCaughan of fellow Chicago punk band The Lawrence Arms, would get blackout drunk every night.

And as we know, booze and sadness don’t mix all too well, but luckily for us, all musicians involved would channel their struggles in some amazing albums and great songs.

22 years on Goddamnit stands as an integral album in both the punk and emo worlds as Alkaline Trio managed to make break up songs relatable with a strong presence of riotous punk rock and a healthy side of booze and tears.