Bleachers
Few artists have had a bigger decade than Jack Antonoff. And really, those who have (Taylor Swift, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, The 1975) eagerly credit at least *some* of their success to his artistic genius. *Bleachers*, the self-titled fourth album from Antonoff’s Springsteen- and John Hughes-worshipping New Jersey rock band, arrives 10 years after their spirited debut and feels like the start of a new era. It isn’t so much that their sound has changed—they’re still making life-affirming Turnpike anthems laced with various strands of nostalgia (the sha-la-la ’60s, the fist-pumping ’80s)—so much as their lens has shifted. While much of the band’s prior work dealt with grief (Antonoff’s sister died from cancer when he was 18), here, they plant their feet firmly in the present: He’s newly married, turning 40, and, per the project’s tone-setting opener, “right on time.” “I tend to work with people who have a gut feeling about something and just want to find it,” Antonoff tells Zane Lowe. “That\'s all making an album is. The music I\'m writing and the stories I\'m telling, the magic is *right now*.” *Bleachers* is brimming with those stars and stories: Lana Del Rey, Clairo, Florence Welch, Matty Healy, St. Vincent, and his new wife Margaret Qualley all make low-key appearances on songs that embrace things we too often lament (getting older, feeling smaller, the suburbs). On “Isimo,” he captures the weight of lifelong commitment. “I see marriage and partnership in a very intense way,” he tells Lowe. “It\'s easy to share the fun stuff with someone, but will you share the really ugly parts of yourself? It\'s not an attractive part of myself; I can spin an attractive concept that sounds poetic about someone dealing with grief, but the day-to-day of that is not fun and attractive. I wanted to celebrate that in that song.” But the best, most unexpected cameo is from professional skateboarder Rodney Mullen, one of Antonoff’s childhood idols, who speaks philosophically about passion, perseverance, and awe. Antonoff told Lowe that Mullen’s monologue, sampled from Tony Hawk’s 2022 documentary *Until the Wheels Fall Off*, “codified” the album’s whole concept: finding peace in the everyday. Antonoff, afloat in marital bliss and on top of the world, is doing just that. “You dance around the apartment,” he sings on “Ordinary Heaven,” “and I just get, I just get, I just get, I just get to be there.”
On his fourth solo album, Jack Antonoff and his band keep writing their own version of the rock’n’roll myth. It’s clever, empathetic, and still a bit clunky.
The producer's omnipresence in the pop space has left some listeners weary – but album four features some of their best material yet
In a way, it seems as if Bleachers is made as the soundtrack of an old-school, post–coming-of-age movie. “Isimo”, one of its highlights, would be played towards the end, after the resolution of most conflicts.
On his fourth record and first album under a new label, Jack Antonoff maintains his brand as a maker of big, broad pop-rock anthems.
Antonoff’s many influences fight against one another on this interesting but ultimately confused project
Your daily dose of the best music, film and comedy news, reviews, streams, concert listings, interviews and other exclusives on Exclaim!
‘Jesus Is Dead’ and Bleachers are back baby! The band formed by none other than pop mogul Jack Antonoff mark their return with a self-titled fourth studio
The New Jersey-born superproducer of Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and more can’t quite capture the same magic with his own band
'Bleachers' finds its primary strength in its serenity. Gentle moments of introspection about love's redemptive power illuminate some of the brightest moments.
Bleachers by Bleachers album review by Sam Franzini for Northern Transmissions. The multi-artist's full-length is now out via Dirty Hit
A disengaged vibe, unnecessary sax solos and a heavy leaning on influences weight this album down