"Cold Air" by Acceptance + Wild, Free Track by Track, Friday, March 24, 2023

When Acceptance released their 2017 record, 12 years after their cult classic Phantoms, the band's fans had mixed feelings about Colliding By Design. On the hand, listeners thought it was great to hear the vocals of Jason Vena and the riffs of Kaylan Cloyd and the moody atmospheric rhythm guitar of Christian McAlhaney all produced by the band's "sixth member" Aaron Sprinkle. But some listeners didn't like the pop direction the band took. In 2020's Wild, Free the band offers less guitar, but Sprinkle takes the band further into the pop world, making the band feel even more distant from their 2005 classic. 

1. "Midnight." The album starts with a slightly musically underwhelming track. It seems that the record deals with Jason Vena's romantic history, "Midnight," perhaps addresses his divorce and how the singer was put in the spotlight when his ex became a constant on The Bachelor. The band filmed a video for the song.

2. "Cold Air" is by far the best track on the record. As the lead single, it shows the electronic direction the band has taken. Guitars are minimal as are lyrics. It's all atmosphere, but a perfect marriage between the musicality of the band and Aaron Sprinkle's Northwestern tones. 

3. "Release & Let Go" returns the band to guitars, but the emphasis is on Vena's lyrics and the keys on the chorus. This is one of the few Acceptance songs with female-backing vocals. The lyrics explain that rather than holding onto a relationship that is over just to release it and let it go.

4. "Son of the City" is another interesting song musically with an '80s-sounding off chord. Lyrically the song is vague. Although it paints a picture of a city and draws on the superhero crazy with the speaker saying, "I'm not a normal hero."

5. "Dark Age" is another track that seems to deal with Vena's "only failure." 

6. "Bend the Light" is another etherial track on the record. It's perhaps the softest moment full of mood. 

7. "Wildfires" features guest vocalist Jessie Villa in the closest Acceptance gets to a duet. The song references the destructive wildfires in the Western states and draws a comparison to the damage done after love.

8. "Wasted Nights" describes the time spent in a new relationship. The time seems wasted if you think of all the things you could be doing instead--gaining a skill, building a business--and the time feels especially wasted if the relationship ends. 

9. "June 1985." I'm not sure what the significance of this date is. I'm assuming that the band members were born in between 1979-1984(ish), so the timeline and lyrics may be about a divorce or losing a friend at a young age. Jason's vocals on this record are more muffled in spots than any previous work the band has released and the verses of this song are maybe the least perfect.

10. "At the Edge of the Earth." Two of the songs on the record were co-produced by J. Hall. The last track on the standard edition of the album has an epic sound. It's a kind of "Where the Streets Have No Name" closing, or on the record a neat wrap up to the issues presented in the record of lost love. In the end everything will be okay when "we meet in the fields at the edge of the earth."