Having two masterminds in a group doesn't always work out. Maybe Blink 182 broke up because of Tom DeLonge's unexplained emerging ego. The Beatles broke up because of John Lennon and Paul McCartney squabbling. Derek and the Dominos lasted only one record. The Raconteurs shifted dramatically by their second release, with Jack White throwing his weight around more on the record. So where do Two Tongues, a collaboration between Say Anything's Max Bemis and Saves The Day's Chris Conley, end up? It won't be joining the pantheon of Beatles' anthologies, that's for sure.
This was one of the most anticipated pop-punk releases for 2009, with, one imagined, wunderkind Bemis joining pop-punk legend Conley for an album of epic proportions. Maybe they took these expectations for granted, because they don't deliver on most of the tracks. As with most collaboration albums, one person has a greater presence than the other. One needs only to look at the Linkin Park and Jay-Z "Collision Course" album for proof. In this case, Bemis' shadow looms large over the presiding, with fiancé Sherri DuPree providing both album cover art and an interlude song. "Two Tongues" is more "In Defense of the Genre" than "…Is A Real Boy."
Both artists are at different points in their career. While Bemis' songwriting focuses on relationships, Conley is still confronting the demons he's been reckoning with since 2007's "Sound the Alarm." At one point, Conley would have met Bemis spot on, but "Stay What You Are" was written eight years ago. Both have tortured artist syndromes, but are trying to overcome that stigma, making "Crawl" the most noteworthy song on the album. The album is most notable when Bemis and Conley actually look like they're enjoying themselves, readily exchanging witticisms and lines and playing off one another. When Bemis described the songwriting process to the press, he said one would write the verse or chorus while another would write the bridge. It quickly becomes apparent that the album is more enjoyable when the group eschews this formula.
Conley and Bemis are known for their works of pop-punk, but both openly embrace experimenting with their sound, as is apparent in Saves The Day's "In Reverie" or Say Anything's "In Defense of the Genre." "Two Tongues" is no different. "Dead Lizard" dabbles in hard rock, while "Back Against The Wall" forces its hand at dance-rock. These give mixed results. Other songs falter because of the distinct contrast between Bemis low-pitched voice and Conley's high-pitched tenor.
The biggest disappointments to come from the album are the lyrics. Both Bemis and Conley are able-bodied and noted lyricists in the pop-punk genre, though not without their occasional missteps. It almost seems as if they saved their most awkward or nonsensical phrases and trite emotional baggage for this album, drawing upon the mundane for inspiration. Let's hope that Conley and Bemis have better material planned for their respective bands' albums due to be released later this year.
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