..Is Committed represents both a return to form and a mid-career left turn. Bemis still traffics in
exaggeration and Jewish humor, but the hyperbole has been tempered by the blows of reality.
This is no longer the angst of post-adolescence, but the grim phantasms of adulthood. Coming
full circle in a sense, Bemis says these are the most autobiographical songs that he’s written since
high school.
As with any Say Anything record, the songs are rollicking and self-referential, jampacked with
meta-references and in-jokes. Before “lore” became a Gen Z cliché, Bemis was employing it was
still called “world-building.” The opener “BE, CHILDREN (INTRODUCTION TO THE
REUNION RECORD)” starts off with what might as well be a mission statement: “to the self-
indulgent/indulge yourself with me.” It’s partially a satire of a reunion song, but filled with a
jarring and uncomfortable honesty that belies the tongue-in-cheek humor. It also rocks hard.
Bemis did not bring Say Anything back to make an Iron & Wine record.