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The original column was published on February 20th, 2019 and can be found below.

New York, release me from my strata

I'm back and so is Say Anything. This time, it's all about 2019's Oliver Appropriate, the final record in the era of Say Anything's catalog kicked off by ...Is A Real Boy. I really could write a whole column on every one of their records, but for now, I'll be fast forwarding to Oliver, which serves as a spiritual sequel to the themes I talked about last time. Just a quick content warning up at the top, this album deals with a lot of sex, sexual identity discussion, and violence against partners.

Quick recap: ...Is A Real Boy was all about that entitled and obnoxious mentality that almost always accompanies a suburban punk dude, explored through singer and songwriter Max Bemis' first person narration. Rage at everyone who won't give you exactly what you want. Screaming over everyone else because you don't think anyone's listening. Stroking your ego just to cover up how little you actually like yourself. Lashing out. Constantly. Really all the time. At everybody. Like this guy:

Definitely not me. I don't know why that's there. Weird.

Oliver skips ahead 15 years later to see what that teenage jackass is up to now. It's a thematic record, so I really recommend listening to it as a whole, even if the plot isn't the clearest narrative on the first listen. The story opens with the titular Oliver, narrated by Max, an older version of our Boy protagonist. His band's broken up, which he assumes is a devastating loss to the public, and he's living his life through an alcohol and pill induced haze. He's conformed to the standard hetero liberal "ally" lifestyle, despite holding deep resentments for everyone around him.

They fade into the liberal bourgeoisie, Their hatred now inflamed to stoke your daughter's screamsAnd ramble about Trump over StellasAnd headline Coachella

He takes that resentment as some sign of his superiority. He's miserable because he's better than everyone and always has been. He only pretends to be one of them to fill some hole in his self worth. His flaws are what define him, but no one's allowed to see them; Oliver himself barely acknowledges them.

And everything they told me was wrong is still in my heart to turn me onMy ego is built on all my pain. I'm your migraine.

Deep down his struggle with his sexual identity gets covered up in a way that may seem familiar to a lot of people who came of age in the "newly woke" era. Oliver "pretends" to be queer as a joke to hide his insecurities. He kisses men as a goof to show off how "comfortable" he is with his heterosexuality, but never pursues these relationships past the mockery phase. He's satirically macho to the point that he falls into the same tropes that outward misogynists do. And that struggle with his identity manifests itself, not only in his sexual identity, but in a deep hatred of women, no matter what he pretends to feel.

I somehow became a feminist, when ten years ago I was feeding drinks To women I'd laugh at when they'd think amongst my friendsIt's such a lie

After we really get to know Oliver, his whole world changes. His facade slips and he actually lets himself go home with a guy, maybe as a joke, maybe not, but he crosses a line he never did before and starts to really fall for someone after the high of getting his band back together lets him actually show some honesty, played by the drummer and co-writer of the record, Karl Keuhn.

One night with me is bringing back the memories of that old room where you started fucking the fearTwo broad shoulders and two hands as big as mine, I bet you think, I bet you know the end is nearAnd maybe it is.'Cause people like your father don't take it lightly when we kissSo now you either follow, let go, or bury belowBut you can't escape the sinking feelings you don't outgrow

And Oliver finds himself... himself for the first time. This guy has let him be Oliver. And then... it's over. This character defining moment to Oliver was just some night. He's in love with someone else and Oliver was just some fling. We've all had these moments that keep us up at night for years, people you can't get out of your head. And those people probably don't even know we exist. We end up defining ourselves by something that the person responsible thinks of as negligible, if they think of it at all. But most of us eventually accept and get over it, but how does someone as self absorbed as Oliver take no for an answer? Well, we've all met these kind of guys and they usually... don't. So Oliver goes to his apartment and...

Never earned the key so I'm knocking and now you're homeMy liver tells me so, it demands moonshine to blind the truthThat I was fine before you made me know myself, I wish I could go backWhat does he got that I don't? All I know, you'll never love me

And Oliver murders him, ties them together, and drowns himself in the East River alongside him.

If you should die in your own form, I'll reinforce that (I'll convince you)I'll slit your throat and leave you gaping, oh, the hardest part of being aloneI'll leave you torn, I'll leave you waiting, oh, the hardest part of being aloneYou break our beating hearts wide openYou're the hardest part of being aloneYou break our bleeding hearts wide openYou're the hardest part of being aloneBeing alone, Being alone, Is that enough?

It's a pretty hard turn in the plot, but it's what makes the whole album work so well. If you're going to take a cautionary tale of entitled ego and advance it 15 years to now, to the Trump era, to the incel era, you have to follow through with it. We're in an era where horrible men are being empowered to treat everyone as less deserving. An era where we continue to give the worst of us the loudest voices and the most power, normalizing and amplifying their bigotry and violence. All because they can't take no for an answer. They can't even imagine a world where people exist outside of what they can do for them.

It makes me sick and I don't know what to do about it. I'm as powerless as our character in ...Is A Real Boy was and I want to lash out and scream at everyone. But isn't that the problem? Isn't that why we're in this mess to begin with, and if so, why was I so surprised when it happened? It's because I'm privileged. Absolutely, I am. When Trump won, I couldn't believe it. But then I heard plenty of people saying "Of course he won, this is the America we've always known. You didn't notice?" Of course Kavanaugh was confirmed. Of course this is the world we live in. Because men don't learn the right lessons from anything. A cautionary tale becomes an empowering icon.

I wish I could go back to that angst-ridden, entitled, suburban asshole and slap the stupid smirk off his face and tell him to get better faster. Never let yourself be satisfied or complacent. Nobody owes you anything. Yeah, life sucks sometimes, but acting like this hurts people. People like Oliver kill people every day and the majority of us don't say a goddamn word about it. We deem it inappropriate to even discuss it in an uncivilized way. So maybe a lot of us could benefit from taking a look back at who we used to be and really think "am I that much better now? Am I good enough yet?" I bet a lot of us won't find a good enough answer. So come up with a better one.

So go ask your ChomskyWhat these systems produceThe cracks in commandmentsThat we can slip through