 |
| Refused Freedom why you'll love it: The best T(I)NC album in years why you'll hate it: The worst Refused album in years |
It's a hardcore record that seriously rocks. You can't take anything away from that. It busts at the seems with youthful aggression, but what made it so special at the time was focused aggression. It was punk and hardcore contained in a high-production studio atmosphere with no distillation whatsoever.
The Shape of Punk To Come was one of the first albums I ever loved that has screaming in it. That's how distant I was from hardcore music at the time. It wasn't the first, but one of. My first was probably At The Drive-In's Relationship of Command, which came out in 2000. So maybe without The Shape... there would be no Relationship... as we know it? I dunno. Number Girl is probably my favorite hardcore band. They put out what I consider to be eastern culture's The Shape of Punk To Come, Num Heavymetallic (2002). In that same year, NYC's GlassJAw released their only album of theirs I loved, Worship & Tribute. They all combine high production, artful presentation, and wild aggression without a shred of chauvinistic oppression. They all exist in the wake of The Shape of Punk To Come. Did Refused really inspire a new wave of hardcore... man, I don't know; but I can't erase that dotted line.
When you have an album that casts a shadow so big it eclipses a genre, and even other bands on the other side of the globe... what chance do the creators themselves have to escape it? Another notch against Freedom, is that nobody really asked for it. After Refused's fucking death, Dennis Lyxzén hopped genres and started the mod-punk quartet The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Eventually, that band jumped the shark, but Dennis proved to the world that he had more than one note; so nobody was hurting for more material from him. Even when Refused reunited a couple years ago (and was killing it live), nobody was asking for new songs. We've canonized The Shape of Punk To Come and were happy to have one more chance to see those songs performed live with "umph".
And yet, here we are. A fine collaboration of bells & whistles that nobody asked for - Freedom. What makes Freedom so frustrating to me, is that I don't find it to be all that terrible. I can't just cast it off so easily. Lyxzén brings it on the mic. He has every bit of fury he had over 15 years ago. The actual songs, though... Here is where things get complicated. "Elektra" would be one hell of a Foo Fighters track. There are ripping guitars, and some damn good power-screaming; but it's an arena rock song, not a Refused song. "War on The Palaces" is probably the best T(I)NC song I've heard in a while, only it's a Refused song instead. Freedom probably would have made for a better T(I)NC album, now that I think about it. That was a band that needed redemption.
A lot of Dennis' hammy political lyrics come through in a bad way on Freedom as well. I never minded it so much on T(I)NC albums because the music was so groovy, but songs like "Destroy The Man" sound rough with a straight faced delivery. Between the shallow political statements and corny arena-rock approach to many of the songs, Refused sounds more like a mid-life crisis than a trendsetter.
There are a couple of highlights to this record, though. And each of them sound like Refused-ass-Refused songs. I love the creative effort put into "Old Friends / New War". "Dawkins Christ" is probably the best song on here. I think the climax to "Thought is Blood" ("When we needed god, we thought of god") is the most exhilarating moment of the whole album. Sadly, buried in the middle of these good songs, is not only the least-Refused thing I've ever heard, but an offense to just about every cell of taste I have in my body - the laughable sing-along "Françafrique". WHAT. WHERE. THEY. THINKING?
"366" is an ok song too, buried in a rather messy, forgettable, or "not Refused at all" second half. Again, I have to reiterate, Freedom's biggest problem is its older brother. The only way Freedom would have been acceptable is if Refused improved on The Shape of Punk To Come, or made as big of a cultural splash. Noted, it's only been a couple months since its release, but I don't think big-handclapply glam rock is going to be the new face of hardcore.
I could have just been glib and just made some "hurr hurr should have stayed dead" jokes, but I wanted to give Refused a little bit of credit here. They tried. Freedom has a couple duds, but standing on its own, it's not a bad album. It's just a wholly unnecessary one.
No comments:
Post a Comment