REVIEW: Sarah and The Safe Word's "The Book of Broken Glass" via Take This to Heart

A few months ago, off of a feature from the latest Harm record I was pointed toward Atlanta, GA’s Sarah and The Safe Word. It took me a while to get to this record, if you’ve read the more recent reviews, you’ve seen me constantly refer to the backlog, but I’ve checked it out now and was pretty surprised by what I heard. Not that this is a genre I haven’t heard of but between Harm’s alternative metal record and the signing by Take This to Heart records, who I usually like for their emo output, I wasn’t expecting an alternative and cabaret blend.

I cannot deny the songwriting chops that Sarah and The Safe Word display on Broken Glass, in fact I can’t really deny their proficiency as a band either. On the first real song on the record, “Ruby Off the Rails,” vocalist Sarah Rose hits a wide range of styles and does an outstanding performance on the song’s chorus. The Safe Word is equally as impressive, “Ruby” offers a background of musical theater without ever making it feel like a broken off piece of a play, just like it takes inspiration from that space. The variety keeps going on “Old Lace,” which has all the makings of a great sea shanty.


From there, however, I find my immersion is brought back and forth. “A Little Evil Never Hurt Anyone” is a great song sonically, with a back and forth presentation between violin and piano and honestly a strong performance on everyone’s side. Where it starts to lose me is that it’s lyrically a little too on the nose. As well documented on this blog, I do not do well with songs where we explicitly say how evil we are like a cartoon villain, which I know is a bit picky on my part but I know myself well enough to know it will make the song wear on me on future spins. I also get this same emotion off of songs like “Soldiers of Rock and Roll,” maybe even more so. In 2023 I feel like lyrics about how rock and roll you are come off like a school play, but to be honest the Chumbawamba feature doesn’t go over well for me at all anyway. The performance on their part is a bit lazy and they end the song by saying “Sarah and The Safe Word 69,” which I’m sure was hilarious at the time of recording but honestly doesn’t go down well. Before I’m accused of simply not liking the genre I will say that songs like “But Tonight We Dance” work really well for me. Mixing themes of death and dance are like two sides of the same coin presented together in beautiful harmony. “Too Dressed Up to Die” is another real chef’s kiss moment. The message of caring about fashion and the drive to keep it all going more than the risk of it all stopping really speaks to me. I just can’t slam octane core for a week straight and then say it’s okay when a better band does it.

I liked this record

Favorite tracks:
  1. A Wake: Violet Makes Her Wish
  2. Ruby Off the Rails
  3. Old Lace
  4. A Little Evil Never Hurt Anyone
  5. No One's Home
  6. ...But Tonight! We Dance! [feat. Chumbawamba & Dog Park Dissidents]
  7. Too Dressed Up to Die
  8. Soldiers of Rock n Roll [feat. Chumbuwamba]
  9. All the Rage [feat. Jamee Cornelia]
  10. Broken Crowns, Forgotten Pageants
  11. Sky on Fire
  12. A Sleep: The Owl Makes His Offer
  13. X

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