Although I’ve been listening to them for years, I saw The Frights in concert for the first time on December 1, 2017. There, they told the crowd that they were going to start recording their third album. After that, the band played a few unreleased songs and I liked them overall, but they weren’t anything monumental to me. Eight months later, Hypochondriac was released on August 24, 2018. At first, I thought the album was just okay, but as I kept listening, I found myself drawn to a certain aspect of some of the songs on the album.
I feel like this is mainly attributed to timing. I’ve read mixed reviews on this album, from people absolutely loving it, to people claiming that The Frights are selling out and the new album is terrible. There’s definitely no denying that this album is different from their past surf-punk sound, which is what truly made me fall in love with their music years ago. Despite this, the lyrical themes of the songs are what weirdly ended up making me like them. As I am going through a major transitional period in my life (moving away from home and going to college), I have found myself reflecting more on myself and my relationships with others. The lyrics of the tracks on Hypochondriac show much more of the band’s vulnerability than on their previous releases. Although I cannot relate directly to some of the situations explained in each song, the personal questioning and the dynamics of figuring out where one belongs are things that I connected with while listening to this album. The release date of this album just so happened to coincide with the date that I left home for the first time. I think that if this album was released even a week earlier, while I was still in my comfort zone at home with friends and family, these themes throughout the album would not have resonated with me the same way.
When compared to their first self titled LP, The Frights have shown major growth with Hypochondriac. On The Frights, the songs feel less complex and less lyrically interesting. Many of the songs are repetitive and sound relatively similar. In an interview with Substream Magazine in 2016, Mikey Carnevale (vocals and guitar) said that their “first record took [them] about eight hours”, while their second album, You Are Going To Hate This, “took [them] four months”. Hypochondriac continues to reflect this change and displays much more complexity within the lyrics, instrumentation, and production.
An example of this lies in “Tell Me Why I’m Okay”, the first track on Hypochondriac. It features numerous different effects of vocals and sounds in the background that can be heard best with headphones on. Additions like this give the music much more variety and distinguishability from the past releases.
Next, is “CRUTCH”, which was the first single to be released. When I first heard this song, I was surprised due to the loudness of the track in comparison to the music that The Frights have released in the past. Everything was turned up with louder vocals, more guitar, and a faster tempo. Earlier this month (September 9, 2018), I attended The Frights’ show at The Fillmore (San Francisco, California) and as I suspected, this song had a great mosh pit going for it.
This album also features lots of songs about relationships, particularly exes. “Whatever”, “Over It”, “Goodbyes”, “Hold Me Down”, and “Alone” discuss past relationships and trying to move on. I like “Whatever” in particular because there is a verse in the song that reference a song on The Fright’s second album, You are Going to Hate This:
And I’m still messed up
From when you said you didn’t love me
Thirty minutes before we played
Ten songs about your name
And this crowd is screaming back
As I had a heart attack
As I tried to play the lead
As I yelled “You’re all I need”.
The line “You’re all I need” is pulled from the song “All I Need” and gives a background to the relationship that inspired the song and how it ultimately ended. It ties the two albums together and lets listeners see a more personal side of the songs and the shows. However, the most vulnerable of these songs about a past relationship is “Alone”. This track tells the story of the ending of a relationship and definitely felt more intimate during the live performance. Mikey sang it alone on stage with only an acoustic guitar and most of the lights were turned off.
Hypochondriac has the potential be a splitting point for The Fright’s listeners, but it doesn’t have to be. I’m a big fan of the earlier releases and You Are Going to Hate This will probably never leave my constant rotation. However, that does not mean that I’ll stop listening to them or anything that they release from here on out. Hypochondriac is a step in a new direction for The Frights and I am interested to see what they will do in the future.
Written by Emma Fong
Instagram: @emmafong_