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Chicago’s Alkaline Trio have long shown the intelligent face of pop-punk, peppering their naggingly catchy tunes with bayonet-sharp one-liners, punning titles and cobweb-strewn, Tim Burton-esque gothic romance.

My Shame Is True provides everything anyone could ask for from this band. Opener She Lied To The FBI is a pulp-fiction explosion of film noir femme fatales, doomed love and kohl-eyed punk rock choruses.

With vocals shared between crypt-keeping frontman Matt Skiba and the more romantic bassist Dan Adriano, tracks like Kiss You To Death and The Temptation Of St Anthony offer a wry, witty take on bloody love songs that pre-dates the anaemia of the Twilight age, and shows it as the bloodless, sexless joke modern gothic fiction has become. Alkaline Trio’s fangs are still sharp after all these years.

Emma has been writing about music for 25 years, and is a regular contributor to Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog and Louder. During that time her words have also appeared in publications including Kerrang!, Melody Maker, Select, The Blues Magazine and many more. She is also a professional pedant and grammar nerd and has worked as a copy editor on everything from film titles through to high-end property magazines. In her spare time, when not at gigs, you’ll find her at her local stables hanging out with a bunch of extremely characterful horses.