…IS COMMITTED

..Is Committed represents both a return to form and a mid-career left turn. Bemis still traffics in exaggeration and Jewish humor, but the hyperbole has been tempered by the blows of reality. This is no longer the angst of post-adolescence, but the grim phantasms of adulthood. Coming full circle in a sense, Bemis says these are the most autobiographical songs that he’s written since high school. As with any Say Anything record, the songs are rollicking and self-referential, jampacked with meta-references and in-jokes. Before “lore” became a Gen Z cliché, Bemis was employing it was still called “world-building.” The opener “BE, CHILDREN (INTRODUCTION TO THE REUNION RECORD)” starts off with what might as well be a mission statement: “to the self- indulgent/indulge yourself with me.” It’s partially a satire of a reunion song, but filled with a jarring and uncomfortable honesty that belies the tongue-in-cheek humor. It also rocks hard. Bemis did not bring Say Anything back to make an Iron & Wine record.