Review Summary: Anti-Flag being anti-good.
I’m not entirely sure what possessed me to suddenly decide to listen to
LIES THEY TELL OUR CHILDREN yesterday but needless to say, it was a mistake.
I’ll be brief: This album is listenable, barely. It was not so bad that I wanted to cut my own ears off, but that’s about it. I haven’t even listened to much Anti-Flag and it sounds rehashed and burnt out. The whole anti-establishment schtick is tired, the songwriting is tired; all of it sounds like a bunch of guys who don’t know what else they’re going to write or play (and haven’t known in a while). It’s a bit sad because it does sound like they know their way around their respective instruments, but they have just run out of ideas and aren’t particularly trying to think of any more.
It doesn’t help that the myriad clichés are slapped together in a fashion that doesn’t lend to any coherency or consistency. There is no stability in the songwriting approach, and the styles that are toyed with (from pop-punk to quasi-hardcore) nonsensically change around from track to track and within songs to a point of absurdity. It might be an acceptable standard for an amateur puttering around with Garage Band, but not here.
In summary, between the worn out motifs and topsy-turvy structure, this is not worth a visit.
