War is a bitch. Love is a bitch. Politics are a bitch. Society is a bitch.
Life is a bitch…a beautiful bitch.
A world of despair always seems brighter when presented in a cappella harmonies of layered texture, jabbed with tight bass lines and ever present hand claps surrounding sweet moans of hope, loss and love making. The lyrics on this album cut to the core of the present and do so in such a vivid, sharp, often sexual yet harsh manner that the listener experiences all but the inner most intimate thoughts of a band that hurts to make you listen. To hear this album is not enough, you must feel it, move to it and let your mind disconnect and pour into its sensual mastery.
Oh, but the longing is terrible
A wanton heart under attack
I wanna love you all the way off
I wanna break your back
The production of this album is beyond compare in 2008, a trait often owned by TVOTR. The brilliance of their previous works came through the working and reworking of the songs until each track eerily exists in a tangible funk club scene and computerized disconnect run by one OK Computer. But on this go around the bands strips the overdubs and heavy retooling to a base form. The brilliance of this album is that they make amazing production qualities come forth in the least produced music they’ve recorded to date. Many tagged this album as ‘too mainstream’ or ‘too approachable.’ My how music fans can be such the arrogant wash. Just the year before the giants kneeled before Radiohead for releasing its most approachable record to date while still avoiding pigeonholes or even worse the expected. Here TVOTR succeeds at the same measure, compromising nothing in so doing.
This is their most vicious album. Every song is an attack. The bombs drop and the shrapnel tears apart the norms of everyday life. They gnaw at consumerism and the American obsession to own what we don’t need. The lyrics seer through the very foundation of America and rip apart President Bush. As they redefine they destroy. Even the heart is not safe. Stories of unrequited love and the primal urges flood the album. This marks the most overtly sexual the Brooklyn boys have ventured and they are full of zeal and lust. Even their hate is stunning.
Hey Jackboot, fuck your war ‘cause I’m fat and in love
And no bombs fallin’ on me for sure
But I’m scared to death that I’m livin’ a life not worth dying for
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