The Double Doghouse

morning folks! this week we’re taking a break from the regular schedule to try and catch some recent (and a few not recent) releases – next up, we’re checking out the newest entry for a discography review i’ve completed but predates me posting on this site: AJJ’s Disposable Everything!

Strawberry (Probably) is a really fun, high energy opener. this one really grew on me – i was a fan on first listen but it’s surprisingly sweet, and i appreciate how the song functions as a bit of a preparation for some of the other themes of the album, lyrically. Dissonance is absolutely one of the best tracks on the record – if Strawberry (Probably) gestures as the difficulty of watching society break in the ways that it does in order to discuss intimacy and tenderness in that place, Dissonance is a little more explicit about the mental state that puts someone in. it’s lyrically uncertain, but the melody drive it forward nonetheless. big fan! Moon Valley High is a very sweet track – musings on paths not taken in a way that i haven’t seen before, in that it isn’t a path you take, but the people around you take, that influences your life and potential futures anyways. a bit of a friendly ballad to someone who could have been important to you. Death Machine brings out a bit more of that loud, frantic, disrespectful AJJ, and it’s extremely up front, both musically and lyrics.. massive fan, potentially my fave on the record. we really are living in a death machine. White Ghosts has that bittersweetness to it – i think this’ll be one that hits me a bit more as i have time to muse on it. Disposable Everything, the title track, really is the core of the record here, nestled softly after White Ghosts (a good sequencing choice, imo). it’s nice – kinda wish it hadn’t been a single, since i like it a lot more in this context than i did as the record was coming out. The Baby Panda takes us abruptly, suddenly, back to the same place as Death Machine – it’s somehow more bitter and more angry. phenomenal track. I Thought of You is a very interesting track – discussing the ending of a relationship in an interesting way. not my fave, but an interesting track. Candles of Love is a very moving song, and it’s incredibly sweet, but it still has that note at the end tying it back in, haha. I Hate Rock and Roll is very fun. a very We Didn’t Come Here to Rock-style track. Schadenfreude is an interesting song at this point in AJJ’s discography, haha. an almost meta amount of self-reflection, given the amount of self-reflection normally on an AJJ record. I Wanna Be Your Dog 2 is the b-side from a single released in 2021, so it’s been on my radar for a while, haha. this track is excellent. good sense of humor, but with that bit of longing at its core that really makes it function. big fan, glad to see it find a record home. All of My Woulds is a very neat song, and has some fun lines in it. In the Valley is the album’s closer, and contains some very potent lines. i think my fave is “i taped over the beginning, but you won’t miss the end”.

faves – Strawberry (Probably), Dissonance, Death Machine, The Baby Panda, I Wanna Be Your Dog 2
dislikes –

on the whole, i think this was a successful outing from AJJ – after Good Luck Everybody sitting on the top of the social wave that was 2019-2020, feeling it crest and being uncertain about the future, Disposable Everything is a very effective album at discussing how things have fallen apart while still not falling apart in the last few years in cruel and strange ways, residing in a kind of limbo, of in process destruction. some tracks, like Death Machine and Disposable Everything, confront the problems directly, but other tracks like Candles of Love or Strawberry (Probably) are a bit more tender, or are more reflective of how to act or react to the social decay. i definitely vibed pretty hard with this album, thematically and lyrically.

not sure i have a ton to say musically – the band’s been maintaining a solid sound since Christmas Island, and they do not disappoint here, with a solid variety in substance and style throughout. i will say, clocking in at 34 minutes, this album uses it’s space fairly well. my gut reaction was that you feel a bit of space on the record, but if i think about what could have been trimmed i come up blank. and even if i agree with that gut reaction, i think the effect is useful, given the content of the record.

ultimately, give this one a shot – it didn’t disappoint for me, and i think there’s stuff here that’s worth chewing on and digesting.

Disposable Everything – 8/10

i’m still working on getting a lot of my older reviews up onto the site – if folks really want to see those, let me know and i can try and fit it into the weekly schedule and try and get at least one up a week! otherwise, it’ll be at the pace i can manage, haha.

first: Candy, Cigarettes & Capguns (still in the vault) | previous: Good Luck Everybody (still in the vault) | next: who knows!

all my reviews for AJJ (coming soon)