This is the third album from MakeWar and they have their sound pinned down. I mean that, in the best way possible, A Paradoxical Theory Of Change is exactly what you want from the band. I also note it because, as it’s my third time review them, I’m trying not to repeat myself. This album introduces a new drummer, Alejandro Serritiello, but it keeps their midtempo sound and its balance between frustration, introspection, and weary optimism. Fans of midtempo punk from a first-person point of view aren’t going to be surprised with what they hear but the band does everything right. The songs are catchy, yet dynamic – musically predictable but not too predictable, with meaningful and thoughtful lyrics. The band even slows it down to a crawl at times, jumping back with fury and frustration but without jarring transitions. It all flows super cohesively.
Some of the tropes on the record are familiar, like the whoa-oh structure of “Not Today” or the rise and fall (with handclaps) of “Magic Worlds”, but that’s being nitpicky. Those songs are changeups from the norm and that’s something you need on any 12-song album. (And I bet they’re a lot of fun live too.) The majority of the songs build in momentum, as Jose Prieto’s coarse voice cuts through the power chords, creating open wounds. The story is how the blood flows from these wounds and how the scabs and scars ultimately take shape. The lyrics are a big part of the record, with “Magic Worlds” and “Tell Me” being a couple of songs where the words are just as, if not more, effective than the music, expressing struggle that’s both personal yet accessible, even downright singalong. “Enemies” sounds like a peppy summer song, until you listen to the words. “Goodbye To All That,” one of the lead singles, has some of the catchiest hooks but the lyrics hit me a little less potently, mostly because the metaphor is tuned specifically to life in New York (while probably being more about aging than about the city itself). Again, it’s nitpicky because the strengths of the record overshadow the weaknesses by far. These are complaints that it’s not perfect in this one person’s opinion: a fitting irony because I might summarize MakeWar’s whole vibe as encapsulating how perfection itself is a myth. Life is about struggle, adaptation, and experiences. So are the songs on A Paradoxical Theory Of Change and it’s good stuff, filled with emotional highs and lows that make you want to singalong: leaving the past behind with a big whoa-oh.