Falling in Reverse - "Alone" (2013)

Falling in Reverse - “Alone” (2013):

When Scene Kids and Soundcloud rappers make a song...

You know, I was never much into Emo in my teen years. Sure, I listened to sad bands like Joy Division and I did know that emos existed at my high school, but I was just never that interested. I was far more interested old Alternative Rock and New Wave. Even now that I’m in in college, that’s barely changed; what little Emo I do listen to is from the 1990s.

So imagine my surprise when I found a post-hardcore song that didn’t sound like it needed Prozac. Who knew such a thing existed?

So who are Falling in Reverse?

Falling in Reverse were formed in Las Vegas in 2008 by vocalist Ronnie Radke, rhythm guitarist Derrick Jones, keyboardist/precussionist Zakk Sandler, bassist Tyler Burgess, and drummer Brandon “Rage” Richter. The band then signed to Epitaph Records, a label full of punk bands I’d rather be listening to instead.

Of all the members of the band, the most interesting is Ronnie Radke himself. But in order to discuss him, I have to backtrack a bit to his previous band.

Radke was lead singer of another band called Escape the Fate with whom he recorded one EP and one album. He left the band in 2008 when he was involved in a fatal altercation in Las Vegas, which lead to a 5 year probation sentence. Because he didn’t show up to his probation, he was then given a 4 year prison sentence, which he served in two and a half.

When Radke was released from prison in 2010, Escape the Fate had already reformed with a new vocalist. Radke then rejoined a project of his from 2008, called From Behind These Walls. The band were then renamed Falling in Reverse, and began recording music.

If you take nothing else from this review, then at least take that Radke and the band have a very interesting backstory… goddamn!

So now that you know about the band and the singer, let’s talk about the song.

What is “Alone” about?

1. The haters
2. Starting from the bottom, and now you’re here
3. Spending an assload of money
4. Kind of being a dick
5. Trying to write a diss track, but actually coming off as insecure about yourself.

For a band so closely connected to the “emo” genre, this sure doesn’t sound like an emo song. What it does sound like is a bad hip hop track.

Let’s get this review started…

The beginning of the song has a lot of synths and a fair amount of autotune, a bit like an EDM song. Electronic elements aren't the first thing that comes to mind with an Emo song, but this track is full of surprises. Like quite a few songs, this track starts chorus-first (I'll talk about the chorus again later), like “Love in an Elevator” by Aerosmith. Radke doesn’t bore us, he gets straight to the chorus!

Then the guitars and Radke's grizzly bear screams start before the song kicks into the verses. The terrible, terrible verses:

All I do is win,

Charlie Sheen

Well, that didn't go well-- did Radke just compare himself to Charlie Sheen... on purpose? I can't believe I have to say this, but don't compare yourself to Charlie Sheen. Turns out, his winning abilities were greatly exaggerated.

The first verse continues as we run into another diss track cliche.

Came from the lowest of lows

Rose to the top with a vision

He started from the bottom, and now he’s here! Radke and Drake should commiserate!

The verses continue:

      Fuck you bitches,
      I'm a business
      I'll be kissing on your missus

“Fuck you, bitches?”

You just lost the argument, dude. If you genuinely refer to the people you’re arguing against as “bitches” then I've lost all respect for your position. This stanza’s argument is “Fuck you, I had sex with your mom.” Who wrote this, a 13 year old?

Then the grizzly bear comes back for the chorus:

Don’t give a fuck about you

You’re feeling broken, motherfucker

And there’s nothing you can do.

This logic comes up a lot in diss tracks, and it never makes sense to me. Think about it: if you “don’t give a fuck,” then why do you feel compelled to write a song about how you don’t care? Also, why do so many diss tracks never address that counterargument?

The grizzly bear makes way for the autotune:

Oh, this the end of everything that I’ve known

No way of knowing if I’ll ever be home

I don’t ever want to be alone.

The verses and choruses both have very different messages. On the one hand, the verses are about Radke creating a tough guy image for himself with the diss track cliches I discussed above. On the other hand, the chorus is more typical emo fare about sounding vulnerable. It's like he couldn't decide what song he wanted to write, so he made "Alone" be both.

We move on to another set of verses:

I got a lot of people talking, nothing but chatter

Why’d you switch up your style, and that I don’t matter

Man, I’ve been in rap since I was shitting in pampers

I like to call this diss track cliche the "Reductio ad Hipsterum" argument: “I did [blank] before it was cool!”

I find it kind of funny the shit you say in your tweets

This line goes back to what I was saying about diss track logic earlier: if you don't care about what others think, why do you care about what people are saying on Twitter? I'm pretty sure he wasn't just laughing at those fake twitter accounts.

Oh, so fuck you, too!

This lead in to another chorus is a good time to bring something up: the phrase “fuck you” has really been dulled from overuse. There have been so many great punk bands in the past who have said “fuck you” or “fuck authority,” and had it feel like it meant something. But now that so many people have used that phrase, most people are pretty desensitized. As a result, Radke saying "fuck you" here feels more like a passing breeze than a shocking statement.

After this chorus, they do something I swear should be against the rules: autotuning rap!

No kidding...

Is this just specifically meant to antagonize the people that hate tasteless autotune? Because it’s working!

Around three minutes the drums, bass and guitar sound like what I can only describe as jackhammer-like. The first couple lines mark the return of the grizzly bear before the autotuned rap comes back. None of this song is particularly listenable, but this is still the toughest section to get through. Falling in Reverse aren’t a heavy band, so why does this song have a moshpit section?

The chorus gets repeated one last time before these lines are uttered:

      Yo 2013, Motherfucker

      Falling in Reverse

It is the $CURRENT_YEAR!

Conclusion:

Look, if you enjoy this song or Falling in Reverse, don't let me talk you out of it. I just seriously don't get this band.

If you want to listen to Emo or Post-Hardcore, for the love of god don’t start with this song! "Alone" has godawful lyrics that sounds like they were written by a 13 year old boy on Xbox Live, and instrumentation about as appealing as amateur dentistry. If this is the only emo song you've heard, it’s going to give you a poor impression of a genre which --contrary to popular belief-- has the capability to be good.

I don’t listen to a ton of Emo, but what little I do is from the 1990s. I promise you’ll have a better time with an older band like The Get Up Kids than this terrible Falling in Reverse song.

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Sources:

https://en/wikipedia.org/Escape_the_Fate

https://en.wikipedia.org/Falling_in_Reverse

https://en/wikipedia.org/Ronnie_Radke