Musicians
Ian MacKaye – guitar/vocals
Guy Piciotto – guitar/vocals
Joe Lally – bass
Brendan Canty – drums
*and there are others, but that is the nuclear, songwriting group
Please allow me a minute to cry out to god and beg that Fugazi make more albums. Okay, now that I’ve had that moment, I’d like to say that this is my favorite album by one of my favorite bands. Am I biased? Yes. You can’t help but love a self-righteous hardcore band that is within 2 hours of you though. The guys from Fughawz (thanks, Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain) have been around since the late 1980s. They started off as an emo band, but evolved throughout the 1990s to become a post-hardcore band. They have intricate instrumentation that leaves you floored. It’s amazing that a band could produce hard music, yet not allow fans to mosh at their concerts. The Argument is a further maturation, and while Fugazi still has the capacity to rock, the lads have matured into songwriters who can use the proverbial pen and sword in creating music.
Untitled
This is just some empty noise and a cello droning. There are no lyrics, or other instruments that you’d assume Fugazi would use (meaning guitar/bass/drums). For that reason, I’m not going to rate this. You needn’t bother to hit your skip button though, because it’s short-lived. That brings us to…
Cashout
A full 18 years removed from Minor Threat, Ian MacKaye is still fighting the system. While it does have some grinding guitar parts, it is surprisingly peaceful for a Fugazi song. It’s pretty average for a Fugazi song in terms of quality, but it has a different feel than most. Get used to it… this album is the most unique out of their catalogue. 4/5
Full Disclosure
It starts out with some rapid guitar and screams of “I don’t wanna.” This is not the most listener-friendly track, and I’m sure many have skipped it. It rewards patience however, and you can hear guy almost whisper the title during the chorus. After a few moments of almost-pop bliss, the boys do what they’re best at, and it breaks down into an intense instrumental serenade, before finishing like it began. 4/5
Epic Problem
I have heard suggestions that this is about writer’s block, but it could be about a variety of issues. If that is the case though, then this is an amazing triumph for Ian. The song builds, driving through a group of progressions that fit together with varying degrees of success. Some hail this as the masterpiece of the album, and they are partially right. I’m assuming they skipped Argument when making that assessment. 4.5/5
Life and Limb
This is a pretty strange song. It isn’t exactly boring, but the instrumentation is neither powerful nor catchy for most of the song. The subdued vocal style that works later on in the album does not fit here. If it were a building, it would be the leaning tower of Pisa. It has all the right ingredients, but it turned out a bit crooked. However, this is a poor analogy, as I would much rather look at the tower than listen to this song. 3/5
The Kill
This is one of my favorite songs, and possibly the least Fugazi song since Long Division. It’s slow, calm, and bass-driven. It is peppered by some guitar, but it is relegated from being the main focus for most of the song. As the title suggests, it is likely about a state execution. Those not blessed with patience might fall asleep before the song is over, but the narrarator himself is doing the same. The song ends when Guy discovers a new use for sodium penathol (lyrics!), and the song trails off without much development. 4/5
Strangelight
Fugazi wrote this? This makes The Kill seem par for the course. It’s like you could dance to it. It IS strange, and it has piano in it. It’s all right, but nothing special, and Fugazi can do better than this. 3.5/5
Oh
You might as well skip this one. I usually do. It is somewhat worse than Life and Limb, and might be better than a grand total of zero songs in the Fugazi catalogue. Who wants to hear about Guy pissing in your modems anyway? 3/5
Ex-Spectator
You might be thinking that Brendan is a spectacular drummer right about now. He’s good, but the sound you’re hearing is two drums. This is more like it. Ian attempts to inspire listeners and call them into action. He encourages people to become active, and fight for the ideals they believe in rather than apathetically bumbling along in society like 99% of Americans do. This is some pretty intense stuff, with Ian’s vocals reminding us of the Minor Threat days while the others provide some intense (and interesting) music as a backdrop. 4.5/5
Nightshop
This song would only be half as cool if you could understand what Guy was singing. The combination of the guitar riff and mumbled vocals really appeals to me, and it evolves into a song with… acoustic guitar? It can’t be! The song is dissonant, but not overtly so, and it creates an interesting sound without turning off the listener unlike some earlier Fugazi. It ends with a bang, as the band strums a final chord. 4.5/5
Argument
This might be the only Fugazi song written post-9/11. While this might seem unlikely, the month between the attacks and this album’s release might have been ample time to record this song in the studio that the band owns. It starts with some quiet radio/television-like noise, and then two starts and stops before the band really cuts in. The band makes good use of the “octave chord” (which is not actually a chord, but two notes played an octave apart, and commonly used in emo). Ian breaks into a quasi-falsetto voice to deliver the following lines:
When they start falling, executions will commence
Sides will not matter now. matter makes no sense
How did a difference become a disease?
I'm sure you have reason, rational defense
Weapons and motives, bloody fingerprints
But I can't help thinking it's still all disease
Here comes the argument
Here comes the argument
Here comes the argument
Folderol
It's all about strikes now, so here's what striking me
That some punk could argue some moral abc's
While people are catching what bombers release
Well I'm on a mission to never agree
Here comes the argument
Here comes the argument
Here comes the argument
Here it comes
Ian’s voice doesn’t sound pained or gut wrenching, but rather listless and depressed for a change. The song is beautiful in the same weird way that Salad Days was. Unfortunately, it might also be the last song for the band, just like Salad Days was for Minor Threat. The distorted guitars kick in at the end, and add the punch necessary to drive home what could be likened to a 21st century Dulce et Decorum Est. 5/5… more if possible
Overall – 94/100 A
If all the songs were as good as some of the songs, I wouldn’t hesitate in giving this album a grade of 100. However, having 3 weak tracks on what is essentially a 10-track CD does not bode well. It begins and especially ends well, but The Kill is the only bright spot in the middle of the record. This effort is extraordinary in some aspects, but most Fugazi albums have less glaring weak spots. I would still recommend that everyone either download or preferably buy (because it’s cheap and Dischord puts out lots of great records by great bands that they couldn’t afford to have if it weren’t for people like you buying records like theirs) this album. The band manages to perfectly stimulate your audio receptors for most of the album, and even manages to stimulate other parts of your brain. There is lots of excellent music on the song, and some tracks fall short of the full 5/5 mark only because Argument is an amazing song.
