Sweet. Real punk. No poppy my-girlfriend-broke-up-with-me crap, no radio rock with a swift strum. Just pure, political, snarly, angry youth airing their beefs with the country (USA) and the world. Anti-everything kids... well, to a point it's a bit depressing. But maybe that's just because it's real and truthful, all the stuff that we don't want to think about. I mean, we listen to music to escape the real world, don't we?? And it's less depressing than apathetic kids sitting on the couch with Cheetos and watching bad budget cartoons all afternoon. Now the thing about this punk music is, a lot of people think of pure punk as being screaming, rife, loud, annoying drivel. This is anything but - it's really harmonious. It's energetic and the harmonies are awesome. Anthemic. Fists pumping in the air as one. Yeah! It's inspiring! I can't believe there's a song called "War Sucks, Let's Party!" Anyhow, great album for solidarity, for mosh pits, for damning the man. Sure they're the same kids who made that everything-in-our-splinter-group-of-genres-sucks song - evidently they can't take criticism standing. Although a lot of bands write knee-jerk songs to try and prove a point to people, but I mean... If those people don't like the band, writing a song telling them how wrong they are isn't gonna change their minds. True punk hasn't changed much since the 70's, aside from getting harder and faster as technology allows (some of the Sex Pistols stuff by now sounds like candy pop in certain circumstances!), so it's not like this album is charting new territory or anything, but it does classic punk the way it's supposed to be done.
ElsewhereAnti-Flag websitePublished : April, 2006. |
