March 27th, 2013 
Josh Hammond 
Artist: Allison Weiss
Album: Say What You Mean
Label: No Sleep
In terms of love, there are two distinctly different industry approaches. There is of course the Hollywood viewpoint, which is packed full of hopefulness, armpit-deep in smitten and founded on long walks on the beach. This is the same industry that had made both the Twilight series and Ashton Kutcher millions of dollars. But let’s be real for a second, shall we? Do you really think you live in a world of sparking vampires and charming kids from Iowa?
Didn’t think so.
Music’s version and viewpoints of love are much more grounded (and by “grounded” I obviously mean “bitter”). Hell, Nick Hornby said it best himself in his timeless book High Fidelity: “What came first – the music or the misery? Did I listen to the music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to the music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss.”
Say What You Mean, the latest album from Brooklyn firecracker Allison Weiss, buys into this theory.
It doesn’t take a Hardy Boy to determine that Weiss is both pissed off and damaged. In “Don’t Go” she makes it clear that she knows she’s been sold short. “How To Be Alone” serves as more of a song about remembering; written in a candid, letter-like form, it’s her lyric dive into the reflections of growth post fall-out. She makes light of the praise she has received for punching the clock emotionally and bites back at the possibility that sometimes moving forward and going through the motions doesn’t determine progress.
Some days the questions still outnumber the answers. Weiss builds on this concept in “Wait For Me,” a song about holding on out of fear of letting go. The album progresses through the natural order of grief, finding anger on tracks like “Hole In Your Heart.” The song highlights the struggle in living with the reality of a former partner and their lack of follow through. Track for track, the themes remain raw and heavy.
You know, happy stuff.
Weiss is a perfect example of how anti-happy can work in music. It would be really easy to write her off as a typical breakup artist writing a cliché sad bastard album. I mean, Weiss isn’t exactly transcending groundbreaking areas in terms of sound. It would be easy for her and her new album to simply find itself swept under the rug or typecast as an industry answer to Tegan and Sara, Motion City Soundtrack or every Warped Tour band with a power-pop sound. But wrapping Weiss up in a bundle of stereotypes would be nothing short of a tragedy. Once you dive head-first into the depth and unapologetic honesty of the album, the brilliance and clarity Weiss is throwing at you is virtually undeniable. Her lyrics linger somewhere between a bold and beautiful self-deprecating approach to storytelling mixed with gritty and half-grinning, tongue-in-cheek catchphrases and comedy reliefs.
It is the album’s last track, “I’ll Be Okay,” that defines the album. With a slow acoustic intro, charming sadness and addicting build, the cello and other sounds are fiddled with and fuzzed. The song is a heartbreaking take on how hard it can be to put your faith in something and end up with nothing. The process of rebuilding a life that you didn’t expect to need can feel disparaging and empty. Weiss captures this with a beauty and sincerity rarely approached. This ability to write with such clarity and vulnerability is not only breathtaking, it is also rather respectable. To be able to take the most uncomfortable and painstaking moments of a person’s life and shine a spotlight on them with no apologies, hesitance or reserve is a trait that cannot be taught.
Anyone can learn to play guitar — what Weiss does makes her a poet. Such bravery should be rewarded. It would be a shame if the universe didn’t agree.
SCORE: 9/10
Review written by: Joshua Hammond
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