Crash Love - Style

Style

"I would really describe this as a rock record, a really straightforward rock record. I don't think we've ever recorded one of those before, we’ve released hardcore records and we've released very multi-layered alt-rock records but this is the most straightforward rock record I think we've ever written so for us that is another matter of progression. Certainly creating a rock record is nothing new in to the greater world of rock music but for us it's something we've never done before so it's very fresh for us."

Crash Love continues AFI's trend of varying their style from one release to the next, with a sound rooted in punk rock but having absorbed and experimented with hardcore punk, gothic rock, and electropop influences on previous albums. Bassist Hunter Burgan described Crash Love as "definitely more of a rock album–more immediate and definitely more of a focused, direct approach musically. Compared to Decemberunderground, where some of the songs were more subtle, these are more in-your-face." Dave de Sylvia of Sputnikmusic speculated that part of the motivation behind Puget and Havok's side project Blaqk Audio was to allow them to expand on the electronic elements that had been prevalent on Decemberunderground while preserving AFI as a primarily pop-punk act. Havok stated that though it was not a purposeful move, the experience with Blaqk Audio did contribute to there being few electronic elements on Crash Love:

Crash Love is a more guitar-focused, guitar-based record than Decemberunderground was. I think what that is a result of is Jade and I having toured for two months and recorded the CexCells record . So when we sat down and began writing Crash Love it was refreshing to be playing rock and I think that having done Blaqk Audio, it rejuvenated our interest in rock. Blaqk Audio was already entirely purely electronic but coming from that sitting down and writing rock we just didn't have as much inspiration to insert those electronic into the rock music that we were playing. But it wasn’t a conscious thing.

Critics compared Crash Love's sound to Morrissey, the Raspberries, The Cure, The Smiths, U2, New Order, and Alkaline Trio. Some compared Puget's guitar lines to Jimmy Page, Johnny Marr, Trent Reznor, and Black Sabbath. Several critics compared "Too Shy to Scream" to Adam and the Ants, specifically the song "Goody Two-Shoes".

Of its style, Matt Collar of Allmusic said that the album is "sticky with epic swaths of melodic rock and just enough swaggering goth-itude to please the emo-tweens" and that "Havok's glitter-goth persona is well intact, it seems tempered here with a bit more punkish muscle and '80s pop croon." Jason Pettigrew of Alternative Press felt that the album's style falls somewhere between their punk roots and mainstream rock, fitting neither extreme: "Although the members of AFI can't go home anymore, they're exploring more sonic vistas than any random group of smelly dudes in a van plastered with hardcore stickers or Clear Channel-sanctioned modern-rock dullards kicking back in $8K-a-week coaches, combined." Other reviewers noted elements of gothic rock, post-punk, 1980s pop, hardcore punk, and synthpop in the album. Vik Bansal of MusicOMH remarked that Crash Love "shows that while fusing goth, punk and pop doesn't need to be rocket science, when AFI are involved it's very definitely an artform." Chris Fallon of AbsolutePunk stated that "fans have to understand AFI is no longer that angry, sarcastic punk band anymore -- every member has strengthened their craft to coincide with each individual's influence."