Hairdresser highlights frustrations stemming from relationships with “Set Them Free” to the woes of professionally cutting hair in the title track. In the latter, Bogart opens dropping a few octaves before hoisting himself into a celebration of apathy and specially placed heat styling tools. More personal and cathartic than Punx releases, Bogart said he bundled the album based on a need to drain the songs from his head rather than a drive to perform outrageous anthems.
The record makes clear that this is a guy who’s lost some key figures in his life. In addition to his trademark girl-group-style breakup ballads, Bogart includes odes to his father and his late friend Jay Reatard. The closing track, “When You’re Gone,” a song about his dad, does not boast the most unique prose. Instead it comes from a very childlike, primal misunderstanding of death. It’s a juice-stained exploration of mortality continued from the track immediately before. “Say Goodbye Before You Leave” makes a tearful attempt to conjure back previous tourmate Reatard. It feels more like a yearbook signature than a belated eulogy, reminiscing and “stupid things” Reatard would do and late-night phone calls. Bogart calls the song a particularly emotional one—an interesting facade that might make it difficult to perform live in his traditionally garish, theatrical style.
Punx songs are a party, sometimes no more. Although Hairdresser is a groovy time in its own, more-Hunx-less-Punx way, the subject matter is far more heavy. The tone of the album feels a bit scattered, darting from breakups to shears to parental death—all in under half an hour. Bogart takes his listener on a jangled journey that doesn’t always make sense. But then again, a fun audio experience doesn’t always have to do that to strike the right toe-tapping chord.
