Album Review: Just Like You By Falling In Reverse
It seems as though Ronnie Radke is finally admitting that he is in fact “an asshole”. The Falling in Reverse frontman is known for his troubled past taking in multiple arrests, drug use, and violence that ultimately led to his departure from rock band Escape the Fate. But it seems he is finally denouncing his sins and looking back on life through Just Like You.
The band’s third album is like flipping through the pages of Radke’s personal diary through illuminating lyrics that divulge remorse and penitence. Though packaged as a party album complete with a half naked girl and blue tongue logo, the underlying lyrics are full of angst branded and stamped with a smile. Though Radke is best at playing the ‘loveable’ asshole everyone loves to hate, the façade melts away when the hook ends and the heavier parts take over. Each track tells a heartbroken tale of misled kid growing up in Nevada with family issues and a need for love. Radke notes his wrongs through revealing lyrics.
While Falling in Reverse are known for their unique combination of pop-rock and post-hardcore, Just Like You brings genre crossover even further. Their first album The Drug in Me Is You was pop-oriented where as their second, Fashionably Late, was more experimental with hip hop and synthesizers. Just Like You comes in a much heavier style, seeming to have more breakdowns and rough vocals similar in style to Fashionably Late’s ‘Self-Destruct Personality’. Though they still add bits of hip hop and synths, the multiple genres mix within songs flawlessly intertwining. The style is fit to the lyrical meaning rather than a singular category a band is typically known for. If raw emotion is needed, a heavy breakdown ensues, and if upbeat determination is wanted a rap is included. It’s refreshing experimentation, taking that risk to make the sound unique. One track may sound completely different from the last depending on the topic, showing that a record does not always have to be a single genre.
The band always includes a few in-your-face tracks that have a disgustingly catchy melody, and the title track of Just Like You is one of them; “I am aware that I am an asshole/I really don’t care about all of that though.” The poppy hooks are the stuff clichés are made of – “I am my own worst enemy/I would die for you/the best of me - but it’s the verses where the depth is found and ultimately brings together the shallow general concepts. The first track on the album ‘Chemical Prisoner’ hits aggressively, and there’s always the sexy girl song, this time packaged as ‘Sexy Drug’. While the hardcore oriented songs punch out with ‘Guillotine IV’ and ‘Die For You’, the upbeat ‘Get Me Out’ refers once again to Radke being the “king of the music scene”.
Though most of the record tells of Radke’s past, a few anomalies emerge such as the deeply personal ballad ‘Brother’ featuring Danny Worsnop (We Are Harlot, ex Asking Alexandria) that is a tribute to the memory of Radke’s brother Anthony, as well as the hip-hop oriented ‘Wait and See’ that speaks of the concerns of modern day humanity.
The inconsistency of style is an acquired taste, yet Just Like You is a great example of genre crossover. Radke is showing growth from his egotistical self-serving hooks into lyrical depth and experimentation.
