Bleachers "Strange Desire" Album Review

Jack Antonoff is a busy man. In addition to being the guitarist for the pop band fun., he also wrote songs with Carly Rae Jepsen, Tegan and Sara, Sara Bareilles, Christina Perri, and Taylor Swift (the song “Sweeter than Fiction” was nominated for a Golden Globe). However, he takes a slightly different route with Bleachers.

The best way to describe Antonoff’s newest album is as 11 consecutive quintessential 80’s anthems. I’m not gonna lie, most of the songs feel like they fell off The Breakfast Club soundtrack, or some other John Hughes movie. Which is a good thing considering that was Antonoff’s intention. Every single track followed that thread. So much of it was this great mash-up of teenage angst from the 80’s and today that was similarly mixed up in its music.

Much like Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” and M83’s “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” (two album I absolutely adored), “Strange Desire” uses typical 80’s tropes like big drum sounds and jangly guitars, while also infusing some present-day synth-pop appeal. Although, it’s kind of hard not to relate a single track to some corner stone of our musical history. Sometimes I even questioned whether I was listening to an album produced in 2014 (of course I didn’t, but just wanted to add some emphasis). Even the subject matter of waiting for someone to call you or watching someone that you can’t have or “I can’t believe I captured you heart” in the standout track “Wake Me” are pulled from 80’s movie tropes.

Although so much of this is pulled from different genres, the standout tracks for me were downright catchy pop songs like “I Wanna Get Better” and “Roller Coaster”, and the sing at the top of your lungs anthems like “Like a River Runs.” These songs are only enhanced by the strong production, which reminds me a lot of Imagine Dragons’ (an album I disliked, but a production I could appreciate) ability to create songs that could be performed in an arena or jammed out to in the shower.

Antonoff is extremely talented, there’s no question about that. As a trip down nostalgia avenue, “Strange Desire” is a phenomenal triumph. He succeeded in his goal, no doubt. The issue is that he let that goal constrain the rest of the album past the strong first half. I hope he sticks with this project. It has the potential to grow into something great. For what it’s worth, I couldn’t help but throwing up a triumphant fist as I walked under the football post.