Ask seasoned songwriters what helps in putting together a great album, and more often than not they’ll say heartbreak. Alkaline Trio’s ninth studio LP is overflowing with such emotional purging. Frontman and guitarist Matt Skiba has said he envisioned singing a lengthy apology note to his ex-girlfriend when recording My Shame Is True (with its title a nod to Elvis Costello's 1977 debut, My Aim Is True). In the leadoff song, “She Lied to the FBI,” Skiba contrasts near-confectionary punk-pop with lyrics alluding to his self-imprisonment. He takes the blame for getting dumped by singing, “I’m doing time for you.” The following “I Wanna Be a Warhol” is the album’s salient hit. With catchy barbed pop hooks, Skiba dreams of morphing into the silkscreened Andy Warhol art that hangs in his muse’s bedroom. It’s hard not to compare the bonus track “Pocket Knife” to songs by The Strokes—it’s got post-punk rhythms, stuttered guitar riffs, and some of that Julian Casablancas–style vocal distortion.