System of a Down -- Mesmerize

9/10

And I see now, to finally get out of the letter "S," which has taken over two years of my life, and clearly been a stumbling block in me finishing this "Every Album I Own" series, I'll have to talk about 2005 again. I already wrote about the abruptly violent and traumatic splintering of my friend group in May 2005 already. Long story short, System of a Down's Mesmerize came out mid-May of 2005, exactly six months after I'd graduated college. My part-time job crawfishing for my old man was ending with the season. I was living at my parents' house. I had no other job. No money. No prospects. And while I still had friends, I was also depressed, and not able to recognize that. So everything ended. Even the Star Wars prequels. Everything I'd planned up to ended. The last thing I'd been anticipating was the May 17 release of System of a Down's Mesmerize. However, I was planning to listen to the album with one of the friend's I'd lost...Now, I'd have to drive around aimlessly (til I ran out of money and couldn't afford gas anymore), listening to the album alone, eating Revenge of the Sith special edition "Darth Mix" Dark Chocolate M&M's...with only a late May trip to Grand Isle with my old man and brother, and TV viewing on my agenda...indefinitely.
On top of that, like most people in my age range at the time just after the 2004 election, and smack-in-the-middle of the U.S.' actions post-9/11, I felt a vast sense of political unrest. The hard rock auteurs' Mesmerize felt like it was specifically created for me.
"Welcome to the soldier side/where there's no one here but me/people all grow up to die/there is no one here but me" sings Serj Tankian in the album's bleak, quiet, and short intro, "Soldier Side." The band then launch into the lightning fast, scorched earth intro to "B.Y.O.B." before the song suddenly seems to lose momentum a couple minutes in. "Everybody's going to the party/have a real good time/dancing in the desert/blowing up the sunshine" the chorus repeats almost disinterestedly. Then suddenly the song blasts off. "Why don't presidents fight the wars/why do they always send the poor?" scream Tankian and guitarist/co-vocalist, Daron Malakian, repeatedly in an explosion of righteous anger. System of a Down have been political before, but this feels like shots fired, as the band continue to fire off political and societal critiques throughout most of Mesmerize's duration. They still visit the realm of lyrical nonsense at times--the middle track is called "This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm on This Song" and repeats the line "Gonorrhea/Gorgonzola" ad nauseum--and their weird sense of spirituality a small bit--the ponderous "Question"--but overall, Mesmerize is more lyrically focused than any of the band's other albums. Musically, though, it's all over the map.
The opening salvo of "B.Y.O.B.," "Revenga" and "Cigaro" are huge and heavy, yet quite progressive, with some unusual instrumentation, incredible and unique harmonies, an absolutely epic dark and enormous bridge in "Revenga," and Frank Zappa-like histrionics in the hilarious boardroom satire of "Cigaro." Things get more unpredictable from there.
The upbeat, yet strangely sad "Radio/Video" features ventures into both disco and polka. The aforementioned "This Cocaine..." is a hyperactive banger, but feeds into "Violent Pornography," a bizarre, disco-influenced, shapeshifting critique of television and the media. "Question" features moments of rapidly picked acoustic guitar and a flamenco influence, along with a more somber, nearly balladesque hard rock sound--before the explosive outro. This leads to the loud-to-quiet dynamics of "Sad Statue" whose chorus I now find to be a little heavy-handed and needlessly grammatically incorrect, "You and me/ we'll all go down in history/ with a sad Statue of Liberty/and a generation that didn't agree," but boy was I feeling it at 23. The album then takes another bizarre left turn with the synth-rock inserts of penultimate track, "Old School Hollywood."
The album ends with a monster, System of a Down's "Street Spirit" if you will, with "Lost in Hollywood." The bleak closer features Malakian's high, emotional vocals in the lead, and warns about the dangers and darkside of Hollywood and fame. It's a more hushed and haunting version of System than listeners have heard before, conjuring images of desperate folk standing in the rain in the flickering light of a seedy street. It's the perfect closer for this album.
Despite all these seemingly disparate genre threads, Mesmerize still feels quite cohesive. The Armenian scales and tones Malakian threads throughout many of these songs, along with a general, yet subtly sad, nearly despondent vibe, hold everything together. The almost out-of-character lyrical focus does, as well. This is some of System of a Down's strongest overall work. While Mesmerize does show a slight shift from heavier elements to poppier ones, it's still quite heavy. The harmonies are unbelievably good at times, and strangely comforting. I've said it before, and I'll say it again--while their personalities may clash, Tankian and Malakian's voices sound like they were made for each other.
And as for me, I lived in Mesmerize for weeks, also buying the band's Steal this Album! just a few days later because I needed more. What a strange time in my life, but I'm thankful I had this music...and strangely enough I bought a new album from the first "T" band I'll review just a week before Mesmerize was released. But I've still got one "S" album left. It's the last album System of a Down ever released, and it came to stores just six months after Mesmerize...because it turns out, Mesmerize is only the first half of a double-album. This gives it a slightly unfinished vibe--but that only enhances its inherent subtle sadness all the more. Also, here's a picture of the summer of 2005's "Darth Mix" M&M's, whose formula is different from the Dark Chocolate M&M's we have now in 2020...and I would know. I ate several pounds of them.

Credit for pic goes to "Scorpians and Centaurs" Flikr account. All the personal pics I could find are blurry ones of me in bed shirtless, with the bag on my stomach, video game controller in hand, Fats the Cat at my side. Nobody needs to see that.

2005 American Recordings/Columbia Records
1. Soldier Side - Intro 1:03
2. B.Y.O.B. ("Bring Your Own Bombs") 4:15
3. Revenga 3:48
4. Cigaro 2:11
5. Radio/Video 4:09
6. This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm on This Song 2:08
7. Violent Pornography 3:31
8. Question! 3:20
9. Sad Statue 3:25
10. Old School Hollywood 2:56
11. Lost in Hollywood 5:20