Tigers Jaw - I Won’t Care How You Remember Me

For the best part of a decade, Brianna Collins and Ben Walsh have forged forward as Tigers Jaw, having parted ways with three of the band’s founding members in 2013 ahead of the release of ‘Charmer’; itself a sonic departure from the raw emo sound that had until then defined the Pennsylvanian outfit. With just 2017’s ‘Spin’ released in the meantime, ‘I Won’t Care How You Remember Me’ arrives as a statement of intent. Recruiting full-time band members Teddy Roberts and Colin Gorman into the fold and returning to work with scene stalwart producer Will Yip, their sixth studio album sees Tigers Jaw return to a full band aesthetic, one that fully swaps the urgency of their early material for a more considered power pop back-and-forth between its principal vocalists. That Tigers Jaw have evolved beyond the band they once were is obvious, and rightly so. The confidence and togetherness on display outweighs that of its predecessor, and early adopters will already have welcomed the band’s shifting direction or moved on. By directly continuing the journey from ‘Charmer’ through ‘Spin’, the band’s latest effort all-but removes the punch that once established them, instead favouring subtle guitar-led melodies and elevating Ben and Brianna’s vocal performances. The outcome is a far gentler listen, with each track largely providing a specific platform for one of the two distinctive singers. Yet although accomplished in its tone, ‘I Won’t Care How You Remember Me’ longs for dynamic crescendos to differentiate the album’s eleven tracks, no matter how pleasant they may be.