Western Courier

Issue date: 9/16/05 Section: The Edge

It's a pretty plain and boring CD cover. There's little to entice the uninformed consumer to purchase the 40 or so minutes of music revolving around in the stereo, but the dull façade is a wolf in sheep's clothing of sorts.

All the glitz and glamor that normally would attract the commodity-driven everyday Joe or Jane is displaced in favor of a superior product lying in wait beneath the cardboard case.

The four loud and exacerbated musicians of Gainesville, Fla. that comprise the folk-punk outfit Against Me! took it upon themselves to create a record of social and political protest, which hopes to tear down all the defensive mechanisms that surround our most deeply felt insecurities.

This record presents Against Me! as a band trying to build from past releases "Reinventing Axl Rose" and "As the Eternal Cowboy" and hopes of perfecting their version of punk rock, which flirts with a slight country influence at points.

The opening track "Miami" is a derisive tribute to the state,which launched a thousand protests in response to the election of 'Dubya.' It's a paranoid, driving rhythm whose lyrics warn of the serious threat of such instances happening again without the public's awareness. It's a cynical outlook but the reverberations from inconsistent balloting impacts all people in America who wish to preserve it as a democracy. The political punches don't stop coming with condemnations of the ever-ominous war in Iraq and the militaristic foreign policy of the current presidency.

They take dead-aim at Condoleeza Rice and are obviously mystified at her support of the president. Lyricist Tom Gabel does not keep himself off the chopping block and writes some intensely critical words about his own feelings of inadequacy and his ultimate mortality.

Similarly, Against Me! sees the present state of the music industry to be entirely befouled with unoriginal, replicated musicians whose ultimate goal is to attain vast amounts of material wealth with as little effort as possible. The bands they criticize lack the passion that this band exemplifies and constantly ask the listener, throughout the CD, if they can feel it.

With several stripped down acoustic tracks, which often expose the soul and dark inner emotions of Gabel, it becomes difficult for the listener to not become drawn into the music.

With the final and title track of the record Gabel offers up a horrifying and vivid account of an acquaintance of his that is obviously dying of cancer. On this track, the often throaty and guttural chorus is refined and vulnerable, backed movingly by an acoustic guitar.

With this, its third release (second courtesy of Fat Wreck Chords), the band deluges the listener with personal accounts of human frailty and cynicism but it ends with the impressive feat of offering hope in a world where it is far easier to let all the burdens overwhelm.

- Daniel O'Donnell

Edge staff

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools