5 keepers
keeper avg .454
World events have once again forced the "Kids" out from hiding, this time 14 years after the relatively politicized No More Songs About Sleep And Fire. Like the bonkers "The Leader" from Sleep and Fire, this album's title track***** wastes no time revealing what the focus of the album is going to be. Rick Valentin barks and howls with rage, eventually wailing like a deranged Kemit The Frog at the atrocity our country has inflicted on itself. Because even the concept of human decency and rational inquiry are now political, only a few songs on the album can be called non-political, but they're in the minority. One of these is the seemingly celebratory "Hippie Hills"****, full of examples of childhood trials juxtaposed with today's sterility, illustrating how you can never go back home in more ways than one. On the punchy "Better Place"**** Rick joyously skewers a popular social media platform, punctuating each line in the chorus in a kind of yodel. The subjects of "Lucky Ones" and "Safe Tonight" (immigration?) aren't as obvious so the column they reside in is debatable. Every other song is in some way political, covering all the hot-button issues today, from "World's Insane" (your crazy conservative neighbor), gun control AND the military industrial complex ("Devil and the Gun"), the generational war ("Better Than Nothing"), crimes of the world of white men ("Final Offense"), and finally the coming revolution(?) ("Big Surprise"). The best of these is "Brand New Country"****, which shows how there are no easy answers when a large, diverse population tries to govern itself. Musically it's an energetic, intense, sometimes abrasive album (except for "Lucky Ones" and "Devil and the Gun" (similar to "In My Way") which are kind of draggy), but there are more important things going on here as Rick's talking about everything that you worry or argue with your family about. Let's hope it seems dated in 2 or 6 years (in a good way). Poster Children have traditionally ended their albums with something slow and loud, which makes the mellow, finger-picked "Safe Tonight"**** so refreshing; Rick's (or maybe Jim's) bubbling guitar line is tense but contemplative (like Radiohead has been using); the clouds part a little by the end where "we know what is coming but for now this place is quiet" and Rick's short, trilling solo concludes the album beautifully.
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