Review Summary: Phoning in the silver jubilee
Whilst IRA may be one of the most recognisable names from the Polish rock scene, their situation is distinctly unenviable. The band’s attempts at branching out were always met by fan backlash and begrudging emulation of the established style on the follow-up albums. On one occasion, they went too metal. On another occasion, they took a shot at prime time radio, even partaking in the Polish Eurovision preliminaries. The music can’t be too heavy, can’t be too poppy, it has to be just right in terms of rockiness and any deviation is bad.
In spite of those mishaps, the band’s been around since the late 80s with a brief inactivity period in the late 90s, and the magical number 25 crept up on them. What better way to celebrate the silver jubilee than with a new record? With a new record with a bonus disc of some tracks in English and the singer’s daughter covering one of the heyday hits! Let’s have the flagship track be about how happy we are to be where we currently are, and be the next concertgoer anthem!
All that sounds pretty good on paper. There’s just one teeny tiny problem – the record is lifeless and seems to be there just for the sake of churning something out. Until now, every single IRA album managed to coax some semblance of a response out of the listener, but this is about as limp and apathetic as it gets. The band gives so few damns that they lazily named the record X (coming after a record named 9, in case you were wondering) and only penned the aforementioned wannabe anthem, subsequently condemning the fresher pansy guitarist to whip up the rest of the record with the aid of a hired gun. Stylistically, this is predominantly more of the same modernised baritone thunder that has dominated IRA’s twenty first century output, but contains as much kick in its delivery as a sleeping slug.
IRA has always been renowned for an incredible level of professionalism (their early 90s records sounded so good they got accused of hiring American session musicians), so the bulk of the album refuses to stoop below bland mediocrity. It even tries to vary it up in places – “Szczęśliwa” discretely sneaks in a prime time radio ballad amidst the bottom end thunder, and “Za Siebie” is a misguided attempt to emulate the band’s original sound. None of these tracks are particularly fulfilled anyway, with “Szczęśliwa” being a feeble follow-up to the previous record’s touching lead single. Everything else blends together pretty heavily, even when attempting to deviate from the norm (“Pod Wiatr”).
That’s not to say all’s bad, because there’s a single proper gem buried in this pile of muck. “Styks” (which is smartly offered in English on the bonus disc as well) is a punishing, sprawling track filled with brooding passages and truly inspired playing. From a raw song-crafting perspective, it may just be one of the band’s finest offerings to date. It won’t get added to the immortalised hit list as this is not what the song sets out to do – it feels more like something the band would do for themselves in order to retain artistic integrity in their own eyes. “Styks” gives me hope that there may still be an ounce of greatness left within IRA somewhere.
In the end, the aforementioned wannabe anthem ("Taki Sam") is the best way to summarise the disc. There’s the squeaky-clean production, there’s the faux-driven message, it’s a smash in a package ready to ring out of throats at gigs. Not too heavy, not too poppy, exactly what the fans want to hear. Place it in the setlist somewhere between the old timey hits written by guitarists who left the band almost two decades ago. Whilst the lyrics may be detailing how the singer wouldn’t have strayed from his current path had he had a second chance as some pretty major seventh chords shimmer out in the background, a more fitting message would be one from the 1995 record – “That’s just the way it is and nothing will change it / First day, then night / My heart doesn’t feel like playing anymore / Empty words soar off into the distance”. At least that incarnation of the band had the balls to speak their mind. But hey, this isn’t the sort of stuff you’d want in the headlining track of your 25th anniversary record, now would you?
