Let Me Run Won't Be Meeting Anyone at the Bottom Just Yet

When Travis Omilian shouts "We can carry the weight of this town on our backs tonight", few things have sounded more urgent or more sincere, and he erases any possibility of corny lyrical cliches when he sings "I wear my shoes down to the skins from stomping the ground to the rhythm of my sins".

These lyrical bombshells are both included in the opening song on Let Me Run's Meet Me At The Bottom, a song that sets the tone for the remainder of the album. Lyrically, topics run from the love of music and being young ("Bastard Sons of Mayhem") to being there for your friends ("Shane") and having drinking problems ("Like a Fish").

Omilian's words ring with a passion members of the punk rock community are hard pressed to find. the "I'll be there for you" vibe of "Shane" succeeds in being sincere while not inciting drunken bro-hugs in the bar, as Omilian sings "You can bend and break on me, I can break and bend on you, you can meet me at the bottom when you have to."

Even when covering something as fundamental as drinking problems Omilian delivers lines dripping with imagery and soaked in metapho. ("I sing the selfish songs of the sea, I'm like a fish ... I'm barely sober, but I'm starting over").

Musically Meet Me At The Bottom doesn't dazzle, because it doesn't need to. Solid melodic guitar parts give weight to Omilian's lyrics, while guitar player Corey Perez accentuates instrumental sections with simple leads that smoothly cruise rather than soar.

The whole record is held in a simple yet beautiful jacket depicting all facets of a grandfather clock. The only confusion with the album arises from how the artwork coincides with the title of the record or the lyrical content. However, judging from the way Let Me Run carry themselves in all other musical facets, the artwork was not chosen lightly.

Though many listeners may stumble across Let Me Run through former label mates The Gaslight Anthem, the inclusion of the latter's Brian Fallon as a guest vocalist should be recognized as a collaboration between friends rather than a desperate grabe for coattails. Homestate and label are the only two similarities the bands share, and with Meet Me At The Bottom Let Me Run has solidified their spot on a list of quality New Jersey bands able to stand on their own feet.

~Justin