Typical System is an album that deals with themes and
moments, which often are crystallizations of those themes. For instance,
mortality and escape are themes. In “Flesh War,” Total Control creates a
downright epiphany of a chorus. There is a continual reminder of restraint and
release by way of vocal cues, an inclusion of a keyboard section, and something
pretty close to an explanation of how to escape, even though it may not be an
easy one. This moment of change between chorus and verse is an example of the crystallization
that seems to continually pop up throughout the album. Lyrical and instrumental
pairing is done tastefully and artfully, making for memorable songs,
transitions, endings, and beginnings.
I have listened to this record a
lot – a ghastly, obscene amount – and it has never done anything but continue
to floor me. There’s this group of lines in the first song “Bloody Glass” that
go “String up/The Cowards/String up/The Thieves/Drown their children/In the
fountains/Write a book/To plague their memory.” The immediate takeaway from
these lines is an undeniable ode to the visceral, the vicious, and the violent.
But there’s a much more important distinction Total Control makes here, which
is a group of humans – let’s call it “us” – against a nameless other
institutionalized force represented by “cowards,” “thieves,” and “billionaires.”
This other isn’t necessarily a “you,” but the unsettling thing is that the
listener is required to look into his or herself just because it might be.
Give it a spin on the Iron Lung Records Bandcamp and then buy it. You're going to want it in your collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment