Refused-Freedom (2015)
Refused-Freedom (2015)
“Never think that lack
of variability is stability. Don't confuse lack of volatility with stability,
ever.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
By: Ghost Writer
Just as
much as the recently deceased free jazz maestro Ornette Coleman pretended to
bring us: "The Shape of Jazz to Come", Sweden's Refused brought us
almost fifteen years ago the ambitious and apocalyptic “The Shape of Punk to Come”,
perhaps Ornette never saw those sounds in his head coming of age, but he had a
huge cult following in Scandinavia, where the free jazz scene is still alive
and well, just like death metal and hard rock this days, but let’s not forget
that besides the U.S. and the U.K., Sweden is a pop powerhouse producing a
great volume of glossy and peculiar pop recordings, here, apparently, by
recruiting Swedish pop producer great Shellback, Refused are attempting to fuse
all that historical baggage of them in a convoluted noisy record named, what
else? Freedom.
The record starts with Elektra, it is “the revolution” set to thunderous drums, demonic guitars and maniac vocals, a wonderful introduction for a band absent for almost twenty years and a perfect follow up to their classic record mentioned before, but Refused are iconoclasts, they live in turmoil and like to keep things complicated, they enjoy being out of their comfort zone and quickly launch a nearly industrial percussive attack, this right before going into an intense beat deviating a little into electronics in Old Friends/New War, which never defines itself at all and ends up being a curious case of heavy turbulent pop with lots of attitude, but by the time they get to Dawkins Christ (What a title considering that the great evolutionary biologists is a fervent atheist), not only drums and guitars get combative, they get rabid, led by a powerful bass the band creates quite a sonic beast of almost epic proportions.
Francafrique touches the nowadays complicated theme of European colonization of Africa, using a danceable beat and infectious guitars lines the band achieve an expansive effect added to their sound, it's a hard hitting song whose guitars might have been put more up-front, but works better than Thought Is Blood, almost lost on arrival by a lousy intro, some guitars try to do the resurrection trick but it ultimately fails to deliver.
I guess if the MC5 lives today they might sound very close to War On The Palaces, a strong that once again lifts up the energy level of the record although it adds nothing new to the mix, and that insistent tendency to add dance floor rhythms just end up killing the whole thing like in Servants of Death where incongruent arrangements and message just falls apart from the first second, and please let’s not talk about closer Useless European, where the band simply sounds more boring than ever.
The record starts with Elektra, it is “the revolution” set to thunderous drums, demonic guitars and maniac vocals, a wonderful introduction for a band absent for almost twenty years and a perfect follow up to their classic record mentioned before, but Refused are iconoclasts, they live in turmoil and like to keep things complicated, they enjoy being out of their comfort zone and quickly launch a nearly industrial percussive attack, this right before going into an intense beat deviating a little into electronics in Old Friends/New War, which never defines itself at all and ends up being a curious case of heavy turbulent pop with lots of attitude, but by the time they get to Dawkins Christ (What a title considering that the great evolutionary biologists is a fervent atheist), not only drums and guitars get combative, they get rabid, led by a powerful bass the band creates quite a sonic beast of almost epic proportions.
Francafrique touches the nowadays complicated theme of European colonization of Africa, using a danceable beat and infectious guitars lines the band achieve an expansive effect added to their sound, it's a hard hitting song whose guitars might have been put more up-front, but works better than Thought Is Blood, almost lost on arrival by a lousy intro, some guitars try to do the resurrection trick but it ultimately fails to deliver.
I guess if the MC5 lives today they might sound very close to War On The Palaces, a strong that once again lifts up the energy level of the record although it adds nothing new to the mix, and that insistent tendency to add dance floor rhythms just end up killing the whole thing like in Servants of Death where incongruent arrangements and message just falls apart from the first second, and please let’s not talk about closer Useless European, where the band simply sounds more boring than ever.
The records
feels obese, bloated and repulsive, it has some high points but they are not
enough to counter balance the lack of definition, versatility finally has
killed Refused muse and the record sounds more confusing than ever, this time
ambition has reared its ugly head, shall we wait another 15 year plus for a new
attempt?
For a
moment, more than 15 years ago, Refused were the future, today they sound as if
they were part of the past.
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