Against Me!’s previous album, “Transgender Dysphoria Blues,” is without a doubt one of the most important punk albums of the past decade. Chronicling lead singer Laura Jane Grace’s experiences with coming out and transitioning, “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” brought to light issues that up until recently had been mostly ignored in most forms of music. However, the album’s impact begs the question of how to follow up such a monumental and honest album? For Grace, she simply turned to love as an answer.

“Shape Shift With Me” largely deals with Grace’s divorce and subsequent romantic attempts. Though this topic is well tread, it becomes fresh through Grace’s unique perspective and agile lyricism; it is hard to imagine any other artist pulling off such verbose lines as “Perfect weather for a head wound or studying sophisticated nuances of putting holes in your lungs” (“333”) in a way that not only feels natural but also rings through with gravitas.

Grace uses this adept lyricism to paint two very different sides of “Shape Shift With Me”. These  two opposing poles of the album can be found in the two songs “Rebecca” and “Crash.”

“Rebecca” sounds like a song made to soundtrack race sequences in movies, as Grace yells “I just want to grab you by the skull / Rebecca, kiss me, let’s not fall in love”.

The song’s fast tempo and themes of fast love contrast greatly with “Crash”, a fuzzed-out amble ringing with bittersweet feelings over lost love. When Grace sings “I’m glad I crash landed” in the chorus, she repeats it like a mantra to remind herself that there can be good found in the bad.