Off With Their Heads - Won't Be Missed

Anxious And Angry

 

Although it took me well after 2010’s “In Desolation” to realize, Off With Their Heads quickly became one of my favorite punk-rock bands out there. The music, and especially the lyrics, to songs like “I Just Want You To Know” and “Clear The Air” get a lump in my throat every time I heard them, with the latter one being one of my all-time favorite tracks... ever. Now these two, plus eight more of them, have been stripped down for the band’s first ever acoustic album, “Won’t Be Missed”.

 

Now if you already got goosebumps from Off With Their Heads’ amplified work, this intimate and timid sounding collection of songs will definitely go through marrow and bone. Leaving away drums, bass and distortion doesn’t make these songs per definition better, but Ryan Young’s anxious lyrics and distressed vocals do hit you ten times harder than ever before, making this a beautiful acoustic compilation from start to finish.

 

Most tracks that got re-recorded are off the aforementioned “In Desolation” album, while the remaining tracks range from the band’s debut EP “Fine-Tuning The Bender” (2003) to their latest full-length album “Home” (2013). Unfortunately only ten tracks in total, but fans of Off With Their Heads are in for a real treat with acoustic reincarnations of the earlier two songs I mentioned, and tracks like “Old Man”, “The Eyes Of Death”, “Stolen Away” and “Don’t Die”, though an appeal to acoustic music might be necessary.

 

“Won’t Be Missed” is best listened to alone, isolated from any background noise, to completely struck you with its heartfelt, melancholic content. Off With Their Heads, when that time comes, you truly will be missed…