Against Me! - As The Eternal Cowboy
Against Me! is an interesting band to say the least. While not perfectly punk in terms of their sound they might just be the punkest band out there right now. They play short, fast, jangly songs with impassioned, politically motivated vocals and an energy that is almost careening out of control. For a bad comparison you could take the jangle pop guitar sound of early period REM throw it in a blender with equal parts bluegrass, The Clash, and Billy Bragg and press the button. That level of passion and energy is hard not to get behind and I find myself totally sucked into it. Another element adding to overall feel is the excellent production on this album. Their previous efforts have been a little too muddy to really showcase the subtleness of the feverishly strummed chords but here they really soar.
While there's certainly a ton of energy behind a lot of these songs, they do pull off a few acoustic ballads which is what long time fans would of course expect. These tend to have a little bit more of a country feel, not really musically, but lyrically as they tend to center around lost love. But where country ballads tend to get sappy, these songs drip with all the jadedness and cynicism you'd expect from a proper mad-at-the-world punk rocker.
"As The Eternal Cowboy" is the watershed album for Against Me! Their potent energy is finally presented in all its glory and they deliver another great, if short, album unlike anything else out there. If you're looking for something to expand your musical horizons but with all the burning passion of your favorite punk bands then you can't go wrong with this disc.
While there's certainly a ton of energy behind a lot of these songs, they do pull off a few acoustic ballads which is what long time fans would of course expect. These tend to have a little bit more of a country feel, not really musically, but lyrically as they tend to center around lost love. But where country ballads tend to get sappy, these songs drip with all the jadedness and cynicism you'd expect from a proper mad-at-the-world punk rocker.
"As The Eternal Cowboy" is the watershed album for Against Me! Their potent energy is finally presented in all its glory and they deliver another great, if short, album unlike anything else out there. If you're looking for something to expand your musical horizons but with all the burning passion of your favorite punk bands then you can't go wrong with this disc.
