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Love it.
The whole thing's got a vein of political discontent bubbling away under the surface (which is just as well, because their previous attempts at overt political comment have been clumsy and embarrassing). Such a very melancholy album, too – death's absolutely everywhere on it. Country atmospherics. A lot of it seems like a reaction to the 'happy, friendly nutters' view of the band that the press like to take. Only, being SFA, they do it all with some superb tunes and clever lines.
Yeah, tunes. Tunes! I've completely changed my mind about the quality of the tunes on offer here. It's bloody packed with them, and they're all corkers. I think the only reason I was having trouble picking specific tracks out originally was that they mostly have the same ambience as each other, but increasing familiarity with the album stops that from being an issue. Production values seem much higher than on Rings Around the World, or maybe it's just that the production is much more intelligent than on that one (as in every track here feels like it's intended to form part of a coherent whole). There's also a far better sense of flow to proceedings than on Rings… (where the track-listing seemed to have been decided upon using Burroughs' cut-up method) and Guerrilla (where there was a sudden, shocking loss of focus halfway through).
I'm wondering how much of the content here's a response to their earlier albums. The steel drums aren't the only really obvious knowing wink – the other that immediately springs to mind is the reuse of Base Tuned to D.E.A.D.’s "I see/icy" lyrics in Slow Life. Out of Control feels like the diseased, criminal older brother of Bad Behaviour.
Anyway, I love it. Liberty Belle does the War on Terror protest song perfectly (again, because they’ve managed to rediscover the ability to reference current events without doing so in an obvious, cack-handed manner). Sex, War and Robots does cowboy campfire without putting a foot wrong and has some of those SFA lyrical moments, when they stick an image in your head that just won’t shift – "I program robots to make them lie," the wonderful "if tears could kill" payoff…
And so on.
Slow Life is still the USP. In order: Susumu Yokota intro, Snivilisation/In Sides-era Orbital, burst of melodica, then a similar sound to the rest of the record. Four word singalongachorus, descending scale violins. Robot farts. Robot kids’ repeat refrain. Ziggy-glam guitar faders. Huge blast of opening, enveloping sound for final chorus. Melt. Orchestral fade-out. How the fuck do they manage all that in one song and make it gel effortlessly?
Yeah. Good stuff.
I think the completely abstract nature of the DVD just increases the feelings of disconnection, anger, impending doom, etc. Might just be me. |
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