"White Crosses" -- you could almost throw bagpipes over this (at least the intro and the lead-in to the chorus).

Title track - it's like punk has grown up, looks back on those who haven't yet, and calls them "punk ass bastards." The video's really solid, too. But the best part is that is that this stays ambitious. Rather than setting the world on fire, start fires with designed purpose; focus. It's not at all an abandonment of ideas. When Tom Gabel (the front) talks about how teenage anarchy became a mob mentality, it reminds me of a story a friend once told me about being in Portland years ago. So many kids pushed to be individual with spiked-pink hair that there was a mob of spiked-pink-haired kids and it actually disguised the individuality.

"Because of the Shame" - Because if you don't understand that because of the shame we associate with vulnerability, we numb ourselves, you're missing out on so much of this whole human condition thing.

"We're Breaking Up" - it's a little confused, which makes sense. "The dynamic to the relationship never changes," so it's the same way it's always been. Sometimes that makes you want to leave. Sometimes that makes you want to stay.

"High Pressure Low" - a little coarse, but smart. How we close our eyes to what seems too much larger than us to process. How even honest people can be misled by fear. How we become fixated on the cultures of others. Also, more Irish undertones, like in "White Crosses."

"Ache with Me" -- Ben Folds has "Learn to Live with What You Are." This is like asking someone else if they've also given in. "Do you share the same sense of defeat / Have you realized all the things you'll never be?"

"Bamboo Bones" -- great energy; great sound. Add the lyrics, with the ambition they ask the listener to have, and you have a really solid way to end the album.