Review: My Life in Subtitles by Carpool released via SideOneDummy

Who even needs intros anymore? I’m just gonna start talking.

Carpool opens their third record wearing their influences on their sleeve. I never like the direct point out, but the key arrangement they chose to open the record is almost directly lifted from My Chemical Romance’s “Disenchanted.” I’m not calling this out because I think it’s wrong to sample. It's just the first thing I think of everytime I spin this one. In fact, the transition from the title track to “Can We Just Get High” also plays like “The End” into “Dead” on the same record in being a dreary short song seamlessly transitioning into an enthusiastic sad boy anthem. Again, I do not think any of this is a bad thing I just wish it wasn’t so blatant. On influence,  “Can We Just Get High” is a great entry point to this band on its own even if, to me, this brand of PUP-esque emotional unwellness isn’t my go to. I also feel the track relies on a lot of emulated crowd participation which I feel if Carpool didn’t feel the need to hide behind would serve them even better.


“Crocodile Tears” is a cool track but feels a little long especially considering the genre spaces it plays in and also feels like it ends and becomes something totally different at around three and a half minutes. Both “halves” of this song serve wonderfully as their own track but when presented together make the whole experience bloated. “Open Container Blues,” on the other hand, feels much more natural, no one’s relying on any bells or whistles to make the track pop. It’s just a good song with nice stylistic variety and genuine subject matter. Briana Wright of Cliffdiver has a snuck in feature here in which she doesn’t really steal the show, expands on the vocal composition and leaves me feeling satisfied. Even this song, however, does not need to be five and half minutes and certainly starts to feel a bit long as you go deeper into it.


All of my critiques aside, Subtitles has a fun final stretch. “No News is Good News” and “I Hate Music” are fun emo songs where all pretense is dropped and this band just has some fun with it. They throw in a screamo cut on “CAR” and it goes over surprisingly well in it being a massive curveball with a great outro. The album title name drop on “Thom Yorke New City” is very effective and something I wish was saved solely for the end. The scream into the fake out ending is really strong here and something this band tries to make work a couple of times on this album and finally sticks the landing right before they get you out.


I think my actual issue with Carpool, if you can call it one, is they really struggle to find their identity on this record and a part of me feels bad picking this apart. I don’t think they're a bad band by any stretch, I just think there’s a bit of improvement to be made.


Our score of My Life in Subtitles is 7/10.


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