I never thought I'd see this bullshit again
To come of age in the '80s was bad enough
We were marginalized and demonized
I watched a lot of my generation die
Welcome back to American Crisis
No telling what the price is ...
Here's the newest American Crisis
Thanks to the Evangelical ISIS
People suffer in the streets each day
While you take a little change from the offering tray ...
World turning darker every day
In a fucked up USA
Can you look in the mirror and tell me everything's alright? ...
You're one of us – or one of them
If you're one of them – don't come near me again ...
Silence was death
Never forget
Silence was death
Bob Mould calls the songs that comprise Blue Hearts (his 14th solo album) "the catchiest batch of protest songs I've ever written". Mould once again is backed by bassist Jason Narducy and drummer Jon Wurster.
"American Crisis" is a tale of two times. Past Time and Present Time. The parallels between 1984 and 2020 are a bit scary for me: telegenic, charismatic leaders, praised and propped up by extreme Evangelicals, either ignoring an epidemic (HIV/AIDS) or being outright deceitful about a pandemic (COVID-19). ... I've been through a lot of bad times in my life, and this is the worst political solution I've ever seen. ... These fuckers tried to kill me once. They didn't do it. They scared me. I didn't do enough*. Guess what? I'm back ... And I'm not going to sit quietly this time and worry about alienating anyone.*: Mould did not talk publicly about his sexuality until 1994.
"American Crisis" opens with a harsh scream and clocks in at a brisk 2:28, and that includes a long fade-out.
Mould planned on including a "real angry" anti-Trump song on his last album, Sunshine Rock, but swapped it out with another song at the last minute.
I got a clutch of songs I wrote when things were pretty bad the first time around [with Reagan], and all of those words still apply. "In a Free Land" and "Divide and Conquer," they still mean the exact same thing they meant when I wrote them. It's just a new version. This is a new iteration of it. This is the problem with evangelicals. It never ends.During a brief solo tour in January and February, before SARS-CoV-2 dominated American life, Mould was playing three or four new songs each night, including what turned out to be the first two songs on Blue Hearts: "Heart On My Sleeve" and "Next Generation".
In the latter song, Mould name-checks "Divide And Conquer", one of his songs from Hüsker Dü's Flip Your Wig (1985) and one of my favourite songs of all time.
Caveat: I love Bob Mould. He's a true rarity – a guy who has continued writing and playing consistently great music, even as he closes in on his 60th birthday. But . . . I am wary of these songs, even though I agree with Mould's sentiments wholeheartedly. Some of the lyrics (on both the new single and what I can discern from the live clip above) are a little too literal. Then again, I hate seeing lyrics the first few times I hear any new music. It's like watching a video, which imprints someone else's images in your mind and you can't erase them. Angry/Fed-Up Bob can be a hell of a lot of fun, but I'll be very sad if Blue Hearts was Mould's version of Neil Young's Living With War. I'll find out on in September.
1. Heart On My Sleeve
2. Next Generation
3. American Crisis
4. Fireball
5. Forecast Of Rain
6. When You Left
7. Siberian Butterfly
8. Everyth!ng To You
9. Racing To The End
10. Baby Needs A Cookie
11. Little Pieces
12. Leather Dreams
13. Password To My Soul
14. The Ocean
5 comments:
I love the lyrics so much I almost don't want to hear the song.
Full lyrics:
I never thought I'd see this bullshit again
To come of age in the '80s was bad enough
We were marginalized and demonized
I watched a lot of my generation die
Welcome back to American Crisis
No telling what the price is
Wake up every day to see a nation in flames
We click and we tweet and we spread these tales of blame
Here's the newest American Crisis
Thanks to the Evangelical ISIS
People suffer in the streets each day
While you take a little change from the offering tray
It's another American Crisis
You can see how the lie divide us
World turning darker every day
In a fucked up USA
Can you look in the mirror and tell me everything's alright?
This American crisis keeps me wide awake at night
You're one of us
Or one of them
If you're one of them
Don't come near me again
Ringing in my head only goes away
When I yell all the things that I shouldn't say
Ringing in my head never goes away
Pro-Life, Pro-Life
Until you make it in someone else's wife
You'll be struck down in your house of corruption
Free speech, Free speech
Got stolen by a pack of thieves
This American Crisis keeps me wide awake at night
You're one of us
Or one of them
If you're one of them
Don't come near me again
Silence was death
Never forget
Silence was death
Silence
I've listened to it 4 or 5 times today. ... Even on a "message" song, Mould refuses to lift his vocals from deep within the sonic maelstrom, not even a little bit. ... Good old Bob.
There are some lyrics written on the album cover, like bits of a newspaper article.
"The Left Coast is covered in ash and flames. Keep denying the winds of climate change. The Deep South sinking into the sea. But you don't believe me.
Across the Plains are fields of rotting wheat. Appalachian trail of pain relief. And the cities are teeming. Boiling over with tension and greed.
The rising tide of a broken government. Gold boats are floating on cement. And we're going to war. And we're going to die.
I wear my heart on my sleeve. I wear my heart on my sleeve. Don't know who to believe. Don't know what I believe any more."
Short song times! Longest of the first 7 songs is 2:33.
Heart on My Sleeve (1:58)
Next Generation (2:21)
American Crisis (2:29)
Fireball (1:40)
Forecast of Rain (2:27)
When You Left (2:33)
Siberian Butterfly (2:10)
Everyth!ng to You (2:51)
Racing to the End (1:52)
Baby Needs a Cookie (2:58)
Little Pieces (2:37)
Leather Dreams (2:53)
Password to My Soul (2:54)
The Ocean (3:56)
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