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As It Is returns with a killer and beautiful concept album, The Great Depression. Returning with a darkened, emo look, the band takes on the misconceptions and romanticization of mental illnesses. From beginning to end, the album goes through the stages of grief and tackles different issues of mental illnesses. Earlier in the year, the band released three songs, "The Stigma (Boys Don't Cry)", "The Wounded World", and "The Fire, The Dark", alongside two music videos for "The Stigma" and "The Wounded World". From those three songs alone, I knew this album was bound to be album of the year. From and impactful message to the incredible instrumentals to the vocals; this album was going to be amazing. Low and behold, the album has outdone my expectations. The Great Depression is bound to be the next emo anthem album, dare I say maybe better than The Black Parade? In my opinion, I think this album has the potential to be one of the greatest pop punk albums ever, and has to potential to save lives. Patty Walters, Ben Langford-Biss, Patrick Foley, and Alistair Testo have outdone themselves.
The album opens up with "The Great Depression", which is an odd song. It's more talking than singing, but it's cool to listen to. The song is calling out consumers (us listeners) and telling them to pay attention. This song may just save your life, as Patty says. It also seems to be calling out themselves. It seems as if they're calling themselves out on deceiving fans to make us feel better, to make us hold on. Since many of their fans deal with mental illnesses of their own, they have been just trying to keep us alive, telling us what we want to hear. This album seems to stop that. Telling us that it's okay to not be okay. That it's not all sunshine and rainbows. That the members of As It Is struggle every day and they're allowed to. The Great Depression is the a trying to stop that stigma, allowing themselves and other bands to be more open about their issues and not have to hide behind a "everything will be okay" facade. We've lost so many to that facade, it's time to stop that. It's absolutely incredible that As It Is is trying to end this stigma and facade, and I couldn't be more proud of them. I love "The Great Depression" because of this. It's a pretty incredible song with an important message.
Some of my favorites include "The Stigma (Boys Don't Cry)", "The Hurt, The Hope", and "The End.". I love "The Stigma" because it's a song with an extremely important message. While I personally can't relate as much since I'm a girl, I know there is this awful stigma that boys don't cry. I hate it so much. I know so many males that suffer because they're told to man up and that men/boys don't cry. Mental illnesses for males are brushed aside and presented as nonexistent, or when males try to reach out for help, they're ignored. It leads to so many issues. I can't even imagine having to hold emotions in because I'm told I'm not allowed to have them. So, the fact that this song addresses this issue is so important. I think this song needs to be a damn national anthem, it's that important. Boys DO cry and are allowed to have emotions. I am so proud of As It Is for bringing to to the forefront and giving something that males can relate to.
"The Hurt, The Hope" is a slower song and it's a nice little break. I love the desperation you can hear in the song. The desperation to the hope that things will get better. To me, the lyrics are, yet again, important. I love most of this album for the lyrics alone, these songs are bops in themselves, but they're important messages. In "The Hurt, The Hope", it sounds as if someone is drowning in themselves. They do anything to feel something, "Because we all/ need to feel release/ because we all/ wanna be at peace". You do what you need to feel something, a release, and to be at peace, even if for five minutes. Though, you feel all alone, and being alone makes you feel lost and that you have no hope. So, you continue down the darker path, and that's how people see you. You're this dark, broke being with no hope because you're alone. However, even through all the pain and suffering you feel, you hope, you pray, that things get better. You hear this desperation in Patty's voice, hoping and praying that things will be better, regardless of the pain he's felt. I am a sucker for songs with strong and powerful lyrics accompanied by emotional vocals. The instrumental even showcase the sadness and desperation for things to be better. The instrumentals are slow and somber, showing the decline. Towards the end of the song, the instrumentals begin to pick up, indicating the hope regaining, that things will get better. Patty's vocals even increase, evening screaming a bit. It's just a very powerful song, with music to back up the lyrics and I adore it.
Lastly, I'll focus on "The End." The album began with a call out and a bang, so it's only fitting that the album end with another call out and bang. "The End." calls out those for not listening. Repeatedly the song says "nobody's listening", calling out for people to listen, to actually listen. Again, the band pours their hearts into the song, you can hear how desperate they are to get the message across. It seems this song is about someone not listening, despite the yelling from them. No matter how much you yell and write and make it known, they're not listening. They may hear the words, but they don't listen or feel the pain. Towards the end of the song, it sounds sort of like a note (maybe a suicide note?). "Because I don't need you to see this/And I don't want you to feel this/But I only have so much spark to offer in all of this darkness/And I screamed for you until the day I gave up and lost my voice/So with crimson arms and this broken neck/You fucking tell me who made this choice!" I could be mistaken and reading too much into the song, but this seems like someone finally gave up after not being heard. So, when they die "with crimson arms and this broken neck", who is to blame? This portion of the song is followed by "this is the end" and "nobody's listening" on repeat until the actual end of the song. With the repeat of lyrics, the song ends up being really catchy. This could be on purpose, to make people listen. The vocals increase in emotion at the end of the song, especially during the possible note. It's incredible how much emotion is thrown into this song (the whole album really). Personally, I take this song as a cry out to be listened to. As It Is wants you to actually listen, not just hear and move on, but to listen. Not only to the album, but to each other. As It Is can only do so much, they can only be there so much for their fans. So, listen to each other and help out when you can. Don't let this be the end of the discussion, carry on the message As It Is is trying to spread.
I 100% recommend The Great Depression! It's such an important album with an incredibly important message. I know mental health is often talked about in the alternative scene, but I don't think it's been talked about like this, in trying to erase stigmas and opening up the fact that it's okay to struggle, that you don't have to hide it. This album and band deserve all the love in the world for this masterpiece. Please, give this album the love it deserves. Thank you As It Is for conceptualizing such an important issue into an album. Thanks for talking about what is, seemingly, hardly talked about. This album is just simply fantastic, there's not enough words in the English language to describe how phenomenal this album is. Open up and keep the conversation going about mental health.