Last Friday, November 14th, The Devil Wears Prada released their highly anticipated new album Flowers. This new record has had fans excited to unpack the new track list because over their 20 year career, they have been ever-evolving their sound and always turning a new corner into unexpected territory. Starting their career with heavy metalcore origins, incorporating high screams, low growls, and pulverizing riffs. Now, as they’ve aged out of their purely aggressive era we have watched them slow down and move into a space where they are able to tone things down while still expanding out their repertoire. They’ve landed somewhere that feels closer to post-hardcore with the vocal pairings of Jeremy DePoysters principal clean vocals and Mike Hranica’s intermittent raspy cries.
Flowers is a culmination of a successful career, as well as a lot of the inevitable hardships that have trickled down along the way. This album feels like a nostalgic take on the past two decades of their rise in the music industry while juggling the many outlying struggles that coincide in their personal lives. What some may not even recognize as the same band from their debut album Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord, is them coming into their own and staying true to themselves. What I love about this band is that they’ve always made music they want to make, usually reflecting their current chapter of life. They shut out outside noise or pressures so as not to pigeonhole themselves to the same style of music they made when they were teenagers.
Over the course of the album, The Devil Wears Prada touch on themes such as religion, addiction, relationships, and self doubt. We all know that nagging voice in the back of our head telling us our achievements are never quite good enough…making us yearn for something bigger and better. This becomes a recurring idea throughout the course of Flowers.
The song “Everybody Knows” is one of many vulnerable tracks on the record, delving into the subject of alcohol as a coping mechanism and what its like to try to find another vice in times of strife, “I can’t get back/Gotta find another path/Maybe this will finally take home.” Then, in what feels like a continuation of that thought process, they follow it up with “So Low.” This song is an honest look at what it’s like to confront your demons..“I wish that somebody could tell me why the highs feel so low/I only feel alive when I lose control.” As they say, when you hit your lowest point, you only have upwards to go from there and in that sense, this song also feels like a turning point.
Moving into the middle ground of the record, you get tracks like “When You’re Gone” and “The Sky Behind the Rain” which are both tracks about the ongoing challenges one faces in relationships. DePoyster gives the listener a glimpse into the most intimate parts of anyone’s life and explores the struggles of being away from a loved one when they are needed the most. It’s no secret that the life a musician has downsides, especially trying to maintain a longterm relationship when you are constantly on the road and away from your partner for extended periods of time.
In “The Sky Behind the Rain,” the song is actually just an audio recording, backed by instrumental accompaniment, of someone leaving a voicemail to their loved one. In it, you hear a woman say “Hi babe/I miss you/Just wanted to hear your voice.” This track evokes a lot of emotion, it’s touching but not despairing because you know they will eventually see each other again. This song is emblematic of the way the entire album makes you feel, it’s so raw that you constantly feel twinges of sadness but it always comes back around lift you up.
The album ends on a high note with “My Paradise” leaving the listener with feelings contentment and hope. After what feels like a rollercoaster of an album, going through ups and downs while digging into some dark personal topics, they come out of it boasting reassurance. “Cus there’s something about waiting that makes me feel alive/I’m done searching for things I’ll never find.” These lyrics circle back to the idea that ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’ but what these guys seem to have finally figured out is that is actually a lot greener where you choose to land and let your feet plant firmly in the grass you’re given. Whether that is a successful metaphor or not, I think you get the idea. The Devil Wears Prada have made one of their most affecting albums to-date and that’s because they stopped chasing the next big thing and instead, reveled in doing what they do best.
