Twenty three years deep into their career, emo royalty The Used are all fired-up on their ninth full-length album, ‘Toxic Positivity’.
After the colourful chaos of Heartwork, The Used’s latest album Toxic Positivity feels like the band have come crashing back to earth, with a collection of punchy emo anthems that are succinct and focused. McCracken themes the album around his mental deterioration in a world of COVID and political change, culminating in an album that feels surprisingly confessional and vulnerable for the band at this point in this career.
Stripping back much of the experimentation that they delved into on their 2020 album, Toxic Positivity feels, for the most part, like a return to the band’s roots. ‘The Worst’ is a killer way of blowing open the album, and a song that sees the band at their heaviest for quite some time. The track is packed with plenty of energy, with loud, blown-out guitar riffs and Bert McCracken’s signature over-dramatic flair, kicking off the album perfectly. On ‘Numb’, moody ambience unfurls into driving emo angst, as McCracken desperately bellows “does anybody else feel numb?” at the top of his lungs.
“Stripping back much of the experimentation... 'Toxic Positivity' feels, for the most part, like a return to the band's roots”
The band haven’t done away with all of their grandeur however. Tracks such as ‘Headspace’ and ‘I Hate Everybody’ both show that the band is still acutely aware of their own size, delivering stadium-sized anthems with choruses that are just begging to be belted out by crowds at shows. However, it’s when the band really hone in on their emo roots that they strike gold, with the waltzing rhythms and sweet, infectious vocal melody of ‘Dopamine’, and the up-tempo dance-punk flair of ‘Dancing With a Brick Wall’ acting as real musical highlights across the span of this album.
However, only two of the tracks here cross the three minute mark. On the plus side, this leaves very little room for filler; even the weaker tracks are gone before they drag down the album too much. Yet too often do tracks feel like they end before they have reached a real notable climax; tracks such as ‘Cherry’ and ‘Pinky Swear’ spend so much of the time building up to a great breakdown section, but the pay-off feels wholly unsatisfying when the breakdown is miniscule, and the track feels as though it is rushed to completion afterwards.
On top of that, lyrically, Toxic Positivity sticks to its central themes of depression, anxiety, and learning to live, but has a habit of refusing to explore these themes in any particularly interesting or stand-out ways. Certainly, McCracken’s lyricism is overall decent, and the way the album closes off on a positive note about not giving up on yourself with ‘Giving Up’ is a sweet touch that really brings the album together. But the album feels frustratingly short of being a fully-realised exploration of the themes it is based around, culminating in an experience that too often feels a little shallow, and a little repetitive.
Nevertheless, as flawed as Toxic Positivity may be, it’s impossible to deny that The Used have done well to create something that still feels fresh and relevant this deep into their career. For those who may have been put off by the genre-bending antics of Heartwork, Toxic Positivity offers a welcome return to simple punchy pop-punk that, despite all of its doom and gloom imagery, provides a fun and engaging listen.