…IS COMMITTED

..Is Committed represents both a return to form and a mid-career left turn. Bemis still traffics inexaggeration 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. Comingfull circle in a sense, Bemis says these are the most autobiographical songs that he’s written sincehigh school.As with any Say Anything record, the songs are rollicking and self-referential, jampacked withmeta-references and in-jokes. Before “lore” became a Gen Z cliché, Bemis was employing it wasstill called “world-building.” The opener “BE, CHILDREN (INTRODUCTION TO THEREUNION 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 ajarring 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.