Alkaline Trio - Good Mourning CD (2003) (CD)

Everything the Alkaline Trio has done has been gut-punchingly great and Good Mourning can sit proudly next to those other albums without having to hover above them. In keeping with its title, Good Mourning reveals and reinforces a peculiar Skiba trait: He rarely sounds more alive than when he's singing about death, whether it's the death of a relationship, or in the case of Good Mourning's "This Could Be Love," his own demise. It was a dark year, explains Skiba. "With the band it was great, but I definitely had some things to write about. It feels good to get some of those things off your chest rather than have them swimming around in your head all the time. Aside from playing music with my friends and traveling with my friends, getting those kind of things out has become necessary for me." "We've already gotten leaps and bounds beyond anything I would've imagined with this band," says Skiba. "Hopefully this doesn't scare anybody away, and hopefully it invites some new friends."