I doubt there are many people who love Anti-Flag more than me, but this album is HORRIBLE. Let me say at the beginning that I'm not against bands experimenting, trying new sounds or maturing - it can often lead to pleasant surprises and show unknown depths to them. Unfortunately this experiment by Anti-Flag is nothing but unpleasant.
When the band transferred to big label RCA before the previous album For Blood And Empire, I wasn't particularly against it like many fans, as I felt anything that would spread their urgent anti-war and anti-capitalist message to a wider audience was a good thing. I didn't feel the album was a sell-out either despite its softer sound. However this album is a sell-out. It doesn't even contain an essay booklet like the previous two albums so it's not even trying to inform in the same way.
Right, the album itself. I'm sorry to say in my opinion, there are only two good songs - Spit In The Face, a breakneck true punk song, and Tar And Sagebrush, which actually has a country and western tinge, which I feel proves I don't mind bands experimenting. The rest of the songs range from average to plain awful. In particular, Vices is an abomination. Where has the shrill female vocal come from on this and other songs? And a children's choir? What the hell?!!
The song We Are The Lost contains the lyric "we are the lost, the dead and gone, the seldom seen, we are the helpless and the hopeless, that no one wants to see". I fear this will become Anti-Flag's epitaph if they don't return to their punk roots quickly.
