Bleachers – Bleachers

Review Score:

C+

March 8 / 2024

Jack Antonoff has been a busy man these past few years. His name appears in the producer credits of dozens of big name projects in the pop and indie scenes. For three consecutive years, Jack Antonoff has won the Grammy for Producer of the Year. And rightfully so. He remains so prolific that it’s hard to imagine the award going to anyone else. As his name grows ever closer to household status, it seems that the “Bleachers” project is destined for a rebrand. Or rather, Jack Antonoff will begin releasing music under his own, more recognizable name. Perhaps that’s why the most recent Bleachers record is self-titled. While it’s lost a bit of meaning in the modern age, bands often reserve the “self-titled” album for the project that best exemplifies their sound. Antonoff has spent the last few years lending his talents to a wide range of projects. So how does all of this manifest in the quintessential Bleachers sound?

Well, strangely. While it all does sound pretty solid, it seems as though Jack Antonoff has become a little lost along the way. Something about producing so many records seems to have muddled his own sound, which feels more like a combination of the 1975, Taylor Swift, and The National. This isn’t inherently a bad thing. It’s great, and sort of endearing, that he has picked up a thing or two from his fellow musicians. But there is a problem here. Jack Antonoff, talented as he is, doesn’t have the same irreverent writing as Matty Healy. He doesn’t sing with the same world-weary perspective as Lana Del Rey or Matthew Berninger. He can’t craft a line like Taylor Swift. So while he borrows from sounds he crafted alongside them, he doesn’t put enough personal spin on it to make it interesting.

“Me Before You”, for example, contains a swirly, rising and falling saxophone line that sounds like it was an outtake from Being Funny in a Foreign Language. “Isimo” is one of the several songs I can picture Taylor Swift’s voice on. And at times, the voices of the same former and current collaborators Jack associates with most frequently grace the various songs on Bleachers. “Hey Joe” also sounds like something Swift would sing. And it was cowritten by Aaron Dessner. “Alma Mater”, which sounds like a Lana track, was cowritten by Lana herself. And she sings on the track as well. If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d make a Zodiac-style bulletin board of interconnecting strings and photos – the wide ranging web of members of the Antonoff cult.

“Call Me After Midnight” does sound like an actual Bleachers song. At least, the beat does. Antonoff’s trails off in favor of Sam Dew, who’s voice is far more suited to this particular track. Either way, it’s a solid song. I also quite enjoyed “Tiny Moves”, which has a catchy, simplistic little beat to it that keeps you coming back for more. The album is on the longer side, coming in at almost 50 minutes and 14 tracks. If you cut four of the more derivative songs, there might be something more substantive here.

Ultimately, I find the range of influences all sort of distract from Antonoff’s personal sound. While he seems to have moved away from the Springsteen era (with the exception of “Modern Girl”), Jack once again fails to differentiate himself from his contemporaries. With each subsequent album he produces, it gets harder to tell where the Jack Antonoff ends and the artist begins (and vice versa).

Review Score:

C+

Gubb wrote this review. You can’t get mad at Gubb.

*This review has been amended after this evil “Jayne” character tried to come after me in the comments.*