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::: ::: ARTiST ...: Modern Life is War ::: :::
:: ::: TiTLE ....: Stagger Lee ::: ::
: ::: ............................................................. ::: :
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::: LABEL ....: Equal Vision Records :::
::: GENRE ....: Hardcore :::
::: RDATE ....: 2024-03-18 :::
::: :::
::: ............................................................. :::
::: :::
::: QUALiTY ..: 262kbps/4800kHz :::
::: MODE .....: Joint Stereo :::
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`.::: SiZE .....: 11,99 MB :::.'
`:: PLAYTiME .: 6:22 min ::'
`. .'
URL ......: https://www.discogs.com/release/3052211
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::: (::: ':. `::. -+-[ TRACKS & NOTES! ]-+- .::' .:` :::) :::
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::: A1. Stagger Lee 4:09 :::
::: B1. The Motorcycleboy Reigns 2:13 :::
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::: :::
::: Modern Life is War are flirting with a backlash. Plenty of :::
::: people hated Witness despite the fact that it upped the ante :::
::: on My Love. My Way. like a gambler splashing the pot, with :::
::: songs that stood taller, lingered in your head longer, and :::
::: cut like a Bowie knife (i.e. through human flesh). But still :::
::: we hear the same old line about how everything was better :::
::: back then, like a Judeo-Christian creation myth adapted for :::
::: whiny punk rockers: linear time and new records only take us :::
::: further from some Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve trade :::
::: test pressings and monkey wrench their fixed gear bikes at :::
::: the vegan potluck. :::
::: :::
::: So of course, being the contrary son of a bitch that I am, I :::
::: wanted this to be the greatest album ever, just so I could :::
::: rub all the naysayers' faces in it like a puddle of puppy :::
::: piss. I find myself rooting for Modern Life is War: maybe :::
::: it's their outsider authenticity (few bands have seemed more :::
::: like a S.E. Hinton novel come to life), or their killer live :::
::: shows, or the way that they alienated cringe-inducing :::
::: post-punk wannabes Some Girls, but I find them an easy band :::
::: to go to bat for. And so I wanted this record to be the ne :::
::: plus ultra of Modern Life is War records, a white-hot, :::
::: proletarian punk rock pipe bomb, wiping smirks off faces and :::
::: inspiring much bedroom moshing across America. :::
::: :::
::: And the truth is that, at first, it sounds like a :::
::: disappointment. Where Witness sounded bulletproof and :::
::: hungry, Midnight in America feels broken and disjointed, a :::
::: set of bleak, frustrated dirges that crawl to nowhere, :::
::: building up but rarely catching fire. The album's sense of :::
::: frustration comes out even in the vocal phrasing, which is :::
::: often surprisingly awkward compared to past records. Singer :::
::: Jeffrey Eaton has always written dense, literate lyrics, but :::
::: here you can almost hear him struggling to pack his lines :::
::: into these misshapen songs as they rumble by in fits and :::
::: starts. (There's also a few more backing vocals than I would :::
::: like; Eaton's strangled shout is so perfect for this band :::
::: that anything else feels out of place.) :::
::: :::
::: Which is not to say it's a bad record; far from it. :::
::: Appropriately, the album's highlight is the song that's :::
::: already alienated plenty of message board tastemakers: :::
::: "Stagger Lee." Modern Life is War contribute much more to :::
::: the American folk idiom than Nick Cave's cabaret :::
::: grotesquerie or The Clash's world music jive: their "Stagger :::
::: Lee" is a chugging black hole, baleful as hell and sounding :::
::: the way a song about murder should, with vocalist/method :::
::: actor Jeffrey Eaton growling his way through an icy, :::
::: slate-grey landscape of sin and vice. Simply calling it a :::
::: cover misses the point; as much as anybody who's picked up :::
::: the amorphous folktale, Modern Life is War make Stagger :::
::: Lee's story their own. No other song on the record hits its :::
::: mark nearly so well. :::
::: :::
::: One of the best things about MLIW has always been Jeffrey :::
::: Eaton's lyrics, and he rabble-rouses like Huey Long here, :::
::: carving a real niche for himself as a poet of youthful :::
::: spiritual malaise in post-industrial industrial America. (I :::
::: can easily see young punks getting hip to this record and :::
::: faking proletarian, in the time-honored tradition.) I've got :::
::: a real soft spot for "These Mad Dogs of Glory," where Eaton :::
::: raises a glass to his spiritual predecessors, ranging from :::
::: Sylvia Plath to Federico Garcia Lorca. Unlike many :::
::: lyricists, when Eaton salutes his literary heroes, it :::
::: actually feels natural and unaffected?it's worlds away from :::
::: The Hold Steady name-dropping Sal Paradise, a move that may :::
::: well be completely sincere but nonetheless feels designed to :::
::: win over rock critics with English degrees. (As ever, Eaton :::
::: seems uninterested in trying to impress anybody: how many :::
::: punks are really going to give a shit about Lorca's death at :::
::: the hands of Francoists in the early days of the Spanish :::
::: Civil War?) :::
::: :::
::: Midnight in America is definitely the kind of record whose :::
::: dimensions grow with each listen, and in all honesty very :::
::: few other punk bands are capable of making such focused, :::
::: personal statements. But it's nonetheless a mixed bag, :::
::: sounding like Modern Life is War are feeling out the :::
::: contours of their own aesthetic, sometimes succeeding :::
::: ("Stagger Lee", the churning "Big City Dream", the :::
::: grueling-but-expansive title track) and sometimes not - :::
::: songs like "Humble Streets" work up a skillful-but-monotone :::
::: rage that sounds a lot more boilerplate than this band's :::
::: best work would ever lead you to expect. It isn't a bad :::
::: record, but it's a difficult one because I'm convinced this :::
::: band can do better, like the crusty mentor who always gives :::
::: the most grief to his favorite student. :::
::: :::
::: But like Bruce Wayne once said of Harvey Dent, I believe in :::
::: Modern Life is War. Midnight in America isn't the :::
::: masterstroke I was hoping for, but it's still a gutsy, :::
::: impassioned album that unmasks a lot of today's so-called :::
::: hardcore for the emotionally tawdry and contrived tripe that :::
::: it is. Besides, I'm sure the band would instruct their :::
::: detractors to take a page from anti-antiquarian anthem "Fuck :::
::: the Sex Pistols": "We don't care what you think. We don't :::
::: care what you say. You don't get to decide." :::
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::: . ::: | | ...iNtERRUptiNG | | ::: . :::
::: : ::: | | thE..SilENCE... | | ::: : :::
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