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Review |
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New York punk rockers, Anti-Flag are back with their
seventh studio album Bright Lights In America, which
came as a bit of a surprise to me as it feels like
the band haven’t long released their sixth
studio album For Blood And Empire. Bright Lights
In America is Anti-Flag's second album release since
they signed to a major label, something that the
band has gotten a lot of stick from. I personally
don’t see the problem with bands signing to
major labels as long as the label doesn’t
screw with the bands sound and you can clearly see
that being signed to a major label hasn’t
changed the bands sound too much, the bands songs
have gotten catchier in recent years but that’s
what normally happens when a band becomes more mature
and the song themes are still government based so
being signed to a major label has only done good
things for Anti-Flag so far.
The first 5 tracks from the album are extremely
strong sounding bouncy pop-punk songs that everyone
has grown to love Anti-Flag for, there are a few
fillers but in general the album is pretty good.
The album opens with the majorly infectious sing
a long 'Good And Ready', the guitar riffs are
fast, the bass is bouncy and frontman Justin Sane's
vocals are at their catchy best, the chorus is
huge and the choir based backing vocals add something
good to the overall sound, the lyrics here are
heavily political themed.
The title track 'The Bright Lights Of America'
starts off with guitar riffs that sound like they
were lifted from a Social Distortion song, the
overall sound and feel to the song is fast and
catchy. One of the best tracks on the album is
'Vices', the song sounds totally different from
anything else on the album and is the least poppy
song on the album, but is lyrically quite repetitive
but their is something about the song that really
makes it stand out.
'The Modern Rome Is Burning' is a kick arse song
about how America is set up for its own downfall,
it starts off as a fast paced poppy-punk song
where the strong sounding bass-lines stand out
so well, the song however has an epic outro with
slow lyrics of "This is the modern Rome burning,
let it burn, this is the modern Rome burning,
let it burn, let it burn" and before you
know it, the vocals pick up with frontman Justin
Sane shouting "This is New York burning,
this is Boston burning, this is Washington burning,
this is Pittsburg burning, this is Birmingham
burning", This should be the Anti-Flag song
that Anti-Flag haters should hear as it may just
swing them round.
As I said previously there are a few fillers
on The Bright Lights Of America and they mainly
come in during the middle part of the album. 'We
Are The Lost' is the song which has nothing special
going for it. 'Go West' is another filler and
is a really toned down song that never really
gets going. Don’t let the fillers put you
off though as the last few tracks on the album
really pick up and are classic Anti-Flag moments.
The album finishes with 'The Ink And The Quill
(Be Afraid)', the song is really catchy and has
an epic orchestral outro chant of "Be Afraid,
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid".
You can tell that Anti-Flag have put 100% into
this album, they have had a tough couple of years,
especially bass player Chris #2 who had to deal
with the bad news of hearing that his sister and
her boyfriend had been murdered in early 2007.
That’s something that could either finish
a band off or make them come back stronger, luckily
for Anti-Flag and their fans it’s the second
of the two and the band have produced their most
personal album to date which still deals with
politics and a whole lot more.
4/5
Review by Trigger |
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| Band
Members |
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Justin Sane (Guitar & Vocals)
Chris #2 (Bass & Vocals)
Chris Head (Guitar)
Pat Thetic (Drums) |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Good And Ready
2. Bright Lights Of America
3. Vices
4. Rome Is Burning
5. If You Wanna Steal
6. No Warning
7. Split In The Face
8. We Are Lost
9. Go West
10. Smartest Bomb
11. Shadow Of The Dead
12. Be Afraid
13. Tar And Sagebrush |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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