The Bright Lights Of America, Anti-Flag’s seventh full length album, starts with a chant that wouldn’t sound entirely out of place on the terraces of a UK football game: “you’ll get yours when you’re good and ready … you’ll get yours and go straight to hell”. Then tight-snare drumming and simple punk guitar work soon join the rabble-rousing vocals, and we’re now on more familiar territory.
Well, familiar from the musical point of view, at least. A decade ago - when the West Coast punx ruled the alternative airwaves - it seemed there were plenty of bands standing up and talking bluntly about politics in their music. But now Anti-Flag are one of the few out-spoken groups that have kept themselves on the radar in a scene where narcissism is much more fashionable than having a social conscience – and The Bright Lights Of America addresses that shallowness, amongst other subjects.
Indeed, the title track rips a raw wound in the hollow beauty of the modern American Dream, where everyone dreams of becoming a celebrity and escaping the prospect of a life of unnoticed drudgery, and “No Warning”’s attacks on shallowness apply as well to society in general as they do to the so-called punk scene of the moment.
Anti-Flag also take on the domestic problems of a country that seems as addicted to incarcerating its own citizens as it seems confused by their resentment in “Modern Rome Burning”, and there’s little allegory or subtlety involved – The Bright Lights Of America is an angry album, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be, either.
Angry albums are ten a penny, though, and Anti-Flag have made some effort to point out routes forward – as Chris #2 mentioned in his interview here, political cynicism is a bigger threat than any potential president. How successful they have been will only become apparent over time, but the more personal politics of tracks like “Vices” give the band a chance to lift The Bright Lights Of America off the big-issues soap-box and talk on a more directly accessible level.
So, all well and good for content – The Bright Lights Of America is hardly Shakespearean in its delivery, but addresses more of the real world beyond the bedroom door than the average album. The passion and fire of Anti-Flag’s politics makes it easier to forgive the fact that, musically, they’re a pretty pedestrian punk act – four chords, fast paces and shouty vocals, you know the score.
Veteran producer Tony Visconti held the reins for this album, but has largely let Anti-Flag do their own thing with the songs, only coming at the end and add some new sounds or textures – a cello here, a distant glockenspiel there, a hint of angelic choir on a chorus. It livens things up a little, but there’s nothing there that could have been done without – no one buys albums like The Bright Lights Of America for the production values, anyway.
Of course, why people buy albums is connected to who buys them. Anti-Flag obviously hope that they can reach beyond the angry political niche of punk with The Bright Lights Of America and deliver their wake-up call to a wider section of the world - and hell knows we could do with more political engagement from “the kids”, if not the adults as well. Whether Anti-Flag will end up doing more than preaching to the choir remains to be seen, however; there’s none so deaf as those who won’t listen.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: Anti-Flag, political, punk, The Bright Lights Of America
