The Smith Street Band: Don't Waste Your Anger

- Wil Wagner and the Smith Street Band are back with their fifth full length album Don't Waste Your Anger. A few things have changed since the last one - the band has expanded with a couple of new members, in particular Lucy Wilson's keyboards a prominent addition. The band also for the first time recorded the album themselves at their own Bush House Studios.

But there has also been one very public incident which has undoubtedly influenced this record. Last year two of Wagner's former partners publicly released private correspondence with him, saying it revealed him to be emotionally abusive. Wagner reportedly attempted suicide in response, and the legacy is almost certainly felt on this record. The correspondence itself is not something I'll go into in this review; but it's never just about the music, and you can't simply divorce the person who makes art from who they are when not on stage.

The Smith Street Band's music has gained the huge and devoted fanbase it has mostly to do with Wil Wagner's lyrics, which are usually confessional in nature. Wil's honest portrayal of his own anxieties and neuroses are definitely part of his appeal. In some ways his songs scream what many of us are unwilling to even say outside of our own head.

Still, a good song is not quite the same as a healthy way of relating to the world. Smith Street Band songs are effective at voicing the feelings so many of us have inside, but there are various reasons we don't always voice them - one being that our own unfiltered feelings are usually entirely subjective, whereas finding the truth in any situation means stepping outside our own perspective to see things from others' point of view.

In many of Wil's songs, other people (and this is often women he has some romantic involvement with) exist just as rhetorical devices to explore his own feelings and anxieties. This makes for powerful works of art, but it doesn't make for great relationships, where your feelings are entwined with another person who has their own autonomous emotions and desires, and whose life is affected by your actions.

The public controversy of last year could be seen as a point where this tension comes to life. It obviously affected Wil, and as a very personal songwriter you would expect it would influence the songs on Don't Waste Your Anger.

There are glimpses of this in the lyrics. "I’m my best when I’m forgiving / Life is hard to keep on living" goes the title track. It's OK meanwhile is a personal acoustic track, one that approaches a relationship breakup in a way that reflects a healthy empathy and respect for the autonomy of another person. "And if you don't want the same things, it's alright, I understand 
I just won't lean too hard on you while you make other plans...And we'll understand each other and both acknowledge the pain / And I hope it's not too uncomfortable when I see you again"

Becoming a more well-adjusted person is not traditionally the lyrical domain of pop music. The guilty pleasure we get from hearing our deepest fears and desires sung back to us is a powerful force. However it's a process we should all be going through continually, and it can make for powerful art. Don't Waste Your Anger is the sound of someone growing up to face a world ultimately more complicated than even the best three minute pop-punk song.

- Andy Paine.
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