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| Track List: 1. CTRL+ALT+DEL 2. Scapegoat 3. Give up your Day Job 4. Angst 4.0 the Memories 5. A Stranger's Just a Cunt You've Never Met 6. D.T.T.@.H. 7. The Beating of Luke Morgan 8. Your Wisdom, Our Youth 9. It's a Crog! 10. Red Ash 11. Kill Yourself... Before I do it For You!!! 12. Anything 4.0 a Quiet Life 13. Because I'm Worth It 14. The Lord Knows I'm Drinking 15. Bouncers... Die!!!! 16. Start Tomorrow 17. Pissing at the Wind Running time: 19 minutes Released: 2001 |
This was definitely a gift as this style of punk is not really my cup of tea*. 17 songs in 19 minutes is mind blowing pace. I think I keep it on here as it is so very different from most of my music collection. And the last track is almost a match for the title I gave to my last blog.
Dallying would not be in the spirit of this rapid and immediate work, so onward!
It opens with MS sounds, and that annoying "bing!" that too often accompanies a computer error, and the song that follows is a screed. I suspect a theme.
Immediately I am hit with the fact that there's an impressive amount crammed in to some of these songs. Most tracks by most artists have yet to really get stuck in by 1 minute in, but here the whole thing has built and gone. I definitely admire the ability to cram a narrative into that timeframe. Not a full lyrical narrative, but a musical arc - if one accompanied by screaming.
We have today's dose of gratuitous swearing, including the most controversial of all cuss words. Less so in the north, I think. Actually that song is pretty tuneful until the vocal comes in. I toyed with the idea of including commentary on the C-word, but I just do not feel there is interesting discourse there.
7 tracks in already. I really dislike the vocals on this album, but actually their tunes and drive combined are almost infectious. I think I might enjoy it more as an instrumental, but then I suspect that if the vocal (however blah) was not there it would feel empty by its absence.
Your Wisdom, Our Youth is the only "full length" track here, clocking in just under 3 minutes. I would like to say it has more recognisible structure, but the truth is it feels like an elongated version of the other tracks, or perhaps 2 or three strung together. That is not a criticism; it is more a nod to how well constructed those 1-minute wonders are. I thought I might be deleting this before I began, and whilst there are certainly songs here I could happily not hear again, I do not think I will be. It does its job as a counterpoint to my other music really well and kicks down the door of snobbery over the screaming, short song style. It feels like I have been listening for far longer than I have because each track grabs you, shakes you by the lapels (whilst screaming in your face) before handing you off to its mates. It is an intense experience and despite being occasionally uncomfortable it is not an unwelcome one.
I might have a different opinion of the welcomeness if I was seeing them live. My gut feeling is that such short works would be underwhelming in person, but here - squeezed in between the end of the working day and going out this evening - they fit really well.
Action Image Exchange is an awesome work and now, in hindsight, I am fully appreciative of the gift. It's not in a style I would want to listen to particularly often, nor one that I will pursue for new kicks, but it is a powerful statement that blows preconceptions out of the water. My ears are ringing, and yet the volume was not up that high.
Immediately I am hit with the fact that there's an impressive amount crammed in to some of these songs. Most tracks by most artists have yet to really get stuck in by 1 minute in, but here the whole thing has built and gone. I definitely admire the ability to cram a narrative into that timeframe. Not a full lyrical narrative, but a musical arc - if one accompanied by screaming.
We have today's dose of gratuitous swearing, including the most controversial of all cuss words. Less so in the north, I think. Actually that song is pretty tuneful until the vocal comes in. I toyed with the idea of including commentary on the C-word, but I just do not feel there is interesting discourse there.
7 tracks in already. I really dislike the vocals on this album, but actually their tunes and drive combined are almost infectious. I think I might enjoy it more as an instrumental, but then I suspect that if the vocal (however blah) was not there it would feel empty by its absence.
Your Wisdom, Our Youth is the only "full length" track here, clocking in just under 3 minutes. I would like to say it has more recognisible structure, but the truth is it feels like an elongated version of the other tracks, or perhaps 2 or three strung together. That is not a criticism; it is more a nod to how well constructed those 1-minute wonders are. I thought I might be deleting this before I began, and whilst there are certainly songs here I could happily not hear again, I do not think I will be. It does its job as a counterpoint to my other music really well and kicks down the door of snobbery over the screaming, short song style. It feels like I have been listening for far longer than I have because each track grabs you, shakes you by the lapels (whilst screaming in your face) before handing you off to its mates. It is an intense experience and despite being occasionally uncomfortable it is not an unwelcome one.
I might have a different opinion of the welcomeness if I was seeing them live. My gut feeling is that such short works would be underwhelming in person, but here - squeezed in between the end of the working day and going out this evening - they fit really well.
Action Image Exchange is an awesome work and now, in hindsight, I am fully appreciative of the gift. It's not in a style I would want to listen to particularly often, nor one that I will pursue for new kicks, but it is a powerful statement that blows preconceptions out of the water. My ears are ringing, and yet the volume was not up that high.
*I say that but there is similar to come.
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