Be My Escape

“So let’s play doctor, babe
We’ll operate today
Incisions must be made
You could help solve this case
For me”

When discourse talks about Emo music being problematic, they are referring to this album. There can be a strange coyness within fan spaces of not naming beloved albums that have aged weirdly. But in this case it’s pretty obvious.

Let it Enfold You is an adolescent scream against everyone who has wronged the lead singer. Mostly directed at unnamed women, who have cheated on, rejected, ignored and sometimes even lovingly embraced the wailing victim. In response he plots revenge, in horror movie fashion against his victimisers. With its Bukowski quoting album title it wants to be seen as tortured and mature, but Let It Enfold You is hurt teenage attitude all the way down. Equally thrilling and alienating to the listener. I know enough people in real life who cannot listen to this mode of alternative music anymore, and feel cheated for having to accept it as “just the way things are” while growing up.

“So love me gently with a chainsaw
I’ll leave you like your father did
And I’ll bite your lip so fucking, so hard
And watch the innocence just drip “

But this album is sonically one of the stand-outs of this more petulant side of the genre. Blending metallic guitar work and hardcore with Pop-Punk punch and melodic vocals. It’s a twist that many bands reached for but few actually managed to pull off. The songs are consistently good and Senses Fail re-recorded a live version of it in 2020. I like it enough to place it as part of this project, despite respecting the criticisms of it. Honesty with art is important. So maybe Let It Enfold You can best be seen as a dynamic, but flawed, artifact of a time we’ve left (or should have left) behind.

Senses Fail could have broken bigger with Let It Enfold You. It was originally recorded in April and October 2003, but due to record label restructuring wasn’t released until September 2004. A year is a long time in youth music, especially when you’re in the birth of a new wave like Emo was. Due to this delay My Chemical Romances’ Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge released three months before, channeling a similar horror-movie aesthetic, but with a lot more gender nuance and clearer crossover sensibilities. The town’s only big enough for so many Emo stars.

Regardless, musically the album holds up and Buried A Lie remains one of the most polished Emo-Pop tracks ever released, with a genuinely amusing video. I remember first listening to Bite To Break Skin on my friend’s iPod very clearly. There’s true catharsis here, sometimes in just the right shape.

I have sympathy for the writer behind the lyrics. Buddy Nilsen isn’t a monster. He’s a thoughtful guy who has struggled with addiction, mental health issues and has grown as a person. He loves poetry and has spoken at length about the problem of sexual assault in the Hardcore scene. Senses Fail’s 2007 album Still Searching dispatched with the cringing spurned-lover angle and instead meditates on death, redemption, religion, and purpose. Actually mature, and much more palatable. I reject the idea that bands have to, as a rule, “grow” as they progress through their career. Maturation isn’t always necessary, but admittedly, sometimes, it’s for the best.