Album Review: The Airborne Toxic Event - Hollywood Park

Five years waiting for the sixth studio album from The Airborne Toxic Event was well worth it for, in that time, they’ve curated Hollywood Park - a deep, sensual album. It's Bruce Springsteen meets Neil Diamond to chain-smoke and croon stories about poverty, cults, loss and confusion with a raspy and captivating tone. In Hollywood Park, The Airborne Toxic Event’s frontman Mikel Jollett gets brutally real about his dysfunctional upbringing, allowing it to surface in a menagerie of psychoanalytical anthems that standalone with their own distinct personalities, both sonically and thematically.

Different as each track may be, the album is extremely cohesive. Jollett wanders between deep and sumptuous tones through tracks like Come On Out and an almost pleading scream that dabbles with states of confusion and longing to heart-wrenching effects; Jollett then reaches for both ends of the spectrum in I Don’t Want To Be Here Anymore, the album’s furiously frantic standout track. Approaching such (at times) shocking stories with a consistent blend of indie-rock melodies and shoegaze effects, Hollywood Park is the account of one man we should be thankful for.

So, thank you, Airborne Toxic Event. Thank you for a vibrant, tell-all collection of songs. Thank you for an unabashed honesty and a raw perspective of life’s more turbulent tribulations. Thank you for preparing it all with riveting rhythms and folk-rock sensibilities. We may not be able to relate to everything you’re trying to tell us, but ye gods, with a soundscape as unfiltered, varying and as powerful as this, we sure can appreciate the creative mastery of this album.