The
Bear Quartet - Angry Brigade
 Artist: The
Bear Quartet
Title: Angry Brigade
Catalog#: WeCD209
Price: $13.25
|
Tracks
on this CD: |
| Put
Me Back Together |
| All
Your Life |
| Ask
Me Don't Axe Me |
| Grammar |
| I'm
Still Her |
| Ambulance |
| Last
Verb |
| MVH
Contempt |
| Just
Locals |
| I
Don't Need Light |
| |
As
predicted we have now arrived at The Bear Quartet’s new
album ‘Angry Brigade’ (released in Sweden in September),
their eleventh proper studio album. The follow-up to their deep,
dark, experimental 2002 album ‘Ny Vag’, and in some
ways the “answer” to a few of the “questions” that ‘Ny
Vag’ raised… The triumphant ‘Angry Brigade’ doesn't
shirk and sulk, it confronts the fates and the spectre of death
head on, while holding in high regard the life we’re allowed
to lead before it, and how making the most of it is probably
a good idea. Half the album is populated with luminous, lyrical
guitar pop anthems, bristling with doubts and hopes. The other
half is sprawling sampladelic art-punk diatribes, streaked with
fierce pride and defiance. From the lush, melodic opener “Put
Me Back Together”, a litany of joys and hardships (a life
flashing before your ears), to the furious class war angst of “Just
Locals”. From the what-fate-has-dealt-you music box twinkling
of the album’s lullaby “I’m Still Her”,
to "Mvh Contempt", a can of whoopass that samples the
Dead Kennedys, Velvet Underground and Allen Ginsberg! But the
centerpiece here is the swaggering, cocksure, Clash-inspired “Grammar”,
a big tough rock song with big tough guitars. Plus the two bedazzling
singles, the hurricane of sounds that is ”Axe Me Don’t
Ask Me” and the insanely funky “All Your Life” are
in themselves, just what the doctor ordered: bold, brash pop
songs steeped in integrity. ‘Angry Brigade’ is the
band’s fiercest and most tightly-wound record since ‘Moby
Dick’, incorporating both the band’s sublime pop
sophistication and madcap punk/noise roots. ‘Angry Brigade’,
along with the rest of the band’s output might appeal to
fans of The Smiths, Wilco, Radiohead, Badly Drawn Boy, Teenage
Fanclub, and Dinosaur Jr.
View
more Bear Quartet releases...
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