24 April 2014

Corporation - Shadows of the Corporation

The past years I have been less vocal about punk, something I do not enjoy defending that much anymore. Shying away from the punk label, particularly after seeing the opening ceremony to the London Olympics where dolls bobbed their oversized heads to Pretty Vacant, commenting that they do not want cheap comments. I just wanted to call the punk attitude quits.

Most punk bands have transposed their style, appropriating a more sanitized image. The milieu is scattered with essentially rock bands, few bands playing heavy music that is not metal. The ethos and attitude of punk are transplanted to something very trendy or it is invisible. Crust Punk bands are only nostalgically referred to today.

Crack Rock is a positive pole to punk’s recent clean image. Dirty, vulgar and anti-capitalist, true Crack Rock bands are the dirtiest punk can offer. I think Corporation is a Crack Rock band, with a healthy lenience towards rock contained within its finer sounds. The album contains powerful chords with full-bodied, memorable songs. The 2009 album Return of the Corporation was an awesome album, high on my list of favorite punk albums.

Bank Korrupt opens the first 20 seconds with a weird intro that spill over to familiar riffs and heavy vocals. The song is about being bankrupt and the bank being bankrupt, with a long sample about debt. Quarter Life Crisis is a melodramatic and anxiety ridden song to have as a second song. Venom contains 4 vocal parts with 31 words between no vocals parts in 19 seconds.

I Hate the Radio’s intro is more than a minute long. The chorus is gang vocals of “I hate the radio” repeated 4 times embedded between two bi-vocal verses that serve as anthem. The song progresses to a weird reggae bridge with final chorus and outro. Fuck the radio, I fucking hate the radio. The radio is an advertising medium with no altruism that works tit for tat.

9 to 5 sings anti-work and anti-capitalist sentiments, such as “would you let your child self beat the shit out of you?” The lyrics reiterate the plea to not sell your soul for cash “9 to 5 are you even alive?”. Menstrual Envy is a very weird song. It is the longest song on the album, with a hypnotic and angry feel.

Jesus and Santa is a 180 degree change in mood to happy-clappy street punk. The songs’ carrying bass and trumpet sounds beautiful. It is skater music with attitude, unfortunately only 1:25 long. You Lose contains fast riffs and furious vocals. It sounds a lot like previous songs, such as Land of the Free. An anxious beat presses down on the vocals.

Last Calls’ brass section qualifies the song with jazz-ish elements inserted with rocking guitars. An organ builds to full-on fast and happy skater music. The song is about fucking up songs while drinking till last call and passing out. A cheesy 10 second guitar solo is followed by a solid 10 second bass solo. Consider this my Resignation starts with a very fast intro with clean 90’s type punk vocals. It is a classic punk song that ends the album, probably the most archetype punk song on the album.
The album leaflet states the album was recorded in basements. With 10 songs that span over 28 minutes, it did not take long for me to familiarize myself with the structures of the album. I predict a quick decline in listening of this album and I soon started skipping Quarter Life Crisis and Menstrual Envy. I don’t rate this album as impressive as Return of the Corporation was on the first couple of listens. Nonetheless, this is one of the best punk albums this year.
Authenticity: 8/10 Overall: 7/10