Unlike its expansive predecessor The Blood Album, AFI's 11th effort, Bodies, is a lean set that wastes no time jolting listeners with nearly a dozen urgent tracks that extend the band's late-era maturation as a synth-washed, but punk-rooted, rock outfit. Solid and serviceable, Bodies brims with energy, from the tense "Twisted Tongues" -- packed with Jade Puget's speedy riffs, Adam Carson's popping percussion, and a soaring chorus of yearning voices -- to the skittering '80s callback "Death of the Party," a wild synth bop that sounds like a Blaqk Audio outtake set to guitars. Frontman Davey Havok remains the unmistakable center of attention, his poetic lyrics and passionate delivery injecting a much-needed vulnerability that challenges the overt masculine energy of the genre, whether on the sparse, Depeche Mode-indebted "Back from the Flesh" or the potentially divisive highlight "Dulceria," an unexpected throbber co-penned with Billy Corgan. That dramatic emoting has been part of AFI's draw for a while, and they lean even deeper onto that formula with Bodies, balancing intensity and beauty on the buzzing new wave "Escape from Los Angeles," the luscious swagger of "Looking Tragic" (featuring one of Hunter Burgan's many standout basslines), and the sparkling pogo-bouncer "On Your Back." As AFI continues to push their sound into increasingly experimental territory, the stunning album closer "Tied to a Tree" adds another surprising entry to their catalog. The towering epic merges Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails in truly cinematic fashion, allowing space and atmosphere to take control as Havok's evocative, pained lyrics echo across the band's sonic landscape. Bodies is one of the stronger offerings from AFI's late era, stirring both the physical and emotional with urgency and heart.
© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo