The Used - The Canyon

The Used
The Canyon
2017
Spotify

Oh The Used. Emo to their black heart begin this new album The Canyon begins with an emotional off the cuff sounding story about the lead singers Love for his childhood best friend who took his own life in Provo Canyon Utah during the recording of this record. Over the past 15 years The Used have managed to keep Scremo alive but only at the very fringes of popular culture. They put out bad album after bad album only delighting fans who missed the unhinged ferocity of their early music. However they kept trying to reignite glories from former albums rather than trying to move on and the music suffered. The Canyon is the step forward that The Used never took. The music is finally complex, yet still maintains that soul of emo. It feels almost like a Brand New album but with Burt behind the mic. They are no longer content for loud and aggressive, they find nuance and balance throughout the record. They harness Rock & Roll in a way they never were able to before and the screaming has almost completely been washed away. One of the major differences with this album is how catchy it is. You would never find me calling a The Used album catchy over their entire history but theses hooks get into better than they ever have and lock on. "Rise Up Lights" can be a little to on the nose while in the bridge Burt sings "Your razor blades, your razor blades, all apologies!" with "All Apologies" actually being one of the songs off the original self titled album. The lyrical content is so much more dense on this record filled with meaning outside of pure angst.

One of the most interesting parts of the record is that for something so consumed with death the music is chalked full of life. "Pretty Picture" has this guitar solo that is straight up classic blues rock, and it comes out of no where. The rhythm section always makes sure that you can still move to it, never putting to much weight on everything. At 79 minutes the album is really fucking long, and you can feel it in the later tracks. It just feels like The Used had so much to get out that they had to make the record this size, but if they would have tightened it up it would have had even more of an impact. "Upper Falls" is perhaps one of the best songs on the album and creates this really great space for the music to unfold. The gentle drums allow this guitar rift that feels classic but fits The Used perfectly to wail away. You just never expected The Used to be this thoughtful, this refined and in a word this good. If The Canyon is supposed to be The Used's comeback it's one that they have finally gotten right. We'll just have to wait and see if they continue down this path or fall back to their old ways. Only time will tell.

8.2 out of 10