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Classic Album Review

A Public Theatre Review: “Soulless and Friends” (2023)

Content Warning: This album contains some explicit language.

Most Popular:

Personal Favorites:

  • “Anime Intro”
  • “Fine!”
  • “Sober”
  • “THE HUNT”
  • “My Caustic Ego”
  • “Babe ur So Exciting”

About the Album

Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Public Theatre is some of my personal favorite bands to listen to.  They debuted in 2017 with their single “Fixated” and are still active today.  The band started out as just childhood best friends and eventually came together to make music.

I personally love this band so much.  They have unique vocals with flips and rasp in all the right places and a classically alternative rock and grunge feel with their guitar riffs. 

This album, as a whole, contains a variety of sounds and feelings.  Yet, there is still such a distinct vibe with each song that can tell me immediately that it is Public Theatre.  Most of the songs have a commonality in high energy, moody music and pained lyrics and powerful vocals. 

The first and last songs on this album aren’t “songs” in the traditional sense but I feel that they add so much to the tone of the album.  “PTSA” is a compilation of announcements and radio messages, most if not all being fictional.  I feel that this prelude to the album creates a combination of whimsical and eccentric overtones.  “Anime Outro,” in a stark contrast to the opening song on this album, features about 40 seconds of fire or burning sounds with their song “Grim Reaper” (one of my personal favorites) playing in the background.

Some of the songs on this album have a strong grunge influential feel to them.  Some examples would be “THE HUNT” and “My Caustic Ego,” which might be why I like them so much.  

Others have a more alternative rock feel to them such as “Anime Intro,” “Sober” and “Babe ur So Exciting.”  I personally love the first two and they are the reason why I wanted to review this album.  I love the high energy and catchiness of “Anime Intro” and I think that “Sober” well encapsulates the feeling of their lyric “you can get high from the runaway.”  With “Babe ur So Exciting,” I think the intro especially feels very in line with the alternative rock genre and is even reminiscent of some Foo Fighters songs.

Lastly there are some with a very indie rock feel.  Examples of this would be “Take Me Back Down” “The War” with the less distorted, more distinct guitar sounds.  

I like the variety of the songs in this album because I feel there is something for every mood.  There is even a song with a nice slow and sad consistency called “In My Head.”  However, as I said earlier all of these songs have that little something that makes them all scream Public Theatre.  I feel that the dramatic and unique vocals and the gradual buildups in every song are that little something.  

— dj dragonfly

By dj dragonfly

Alt rock and grunge lover.