More trials and tribulations than an average episode of Melrose Place,
Jawbreaker continue to explore their personal struggles on their third album, fittingly titled
24 Hour Revenge Therapy. Continuing in the
Jawbreaker tradition of poetic lyrics that provide a mental image to each song, the band deal with their endeavors through music instead of wallowing in them, making this record not entirely bleak. "Do You Still Hate Me," for example, has the persona dishing out the friction of a relationship gone sour through talking to the person in question: "I wrote you a letter/I heard it upset you/How can I do this better/We're getting older/But we're acting younger." Being critiqued and ostracized from their scene during the height of their popularity was another headache singer/songwriter
Blake Schwarzenbach dealt with around the time this album was released (their previous album,
Bivouac, provided them with a huge cult following). This no doubt inspired the song "Indictment," which talks about not caring what anyone thinks of their songwriting ("I just wrote the dumbest song/It's going to be a singalong/Our enemies will laugh and be pointing/It wont bother me, what the thoughtless are thinking"). Providing the perfect flow of temperamental pop to go along with these stories is proof enough that
24 Hour Revenge Therapy is an acme of
Jawbreaker's creative output. [A 2014 CD re-released added bonus tracks.] ~ Mike DaRonco