(click on album picture to download)
1987
Dischord Records
192 kbps
(red text = sample track)
1 Give Me Back 2:34
2 Dance of Days 2:20
3 Building 2:02
4 Past 1:57
5 Spoke 2:04
6 Do Not Consider Yourself Free 2:28
7 No More Pain 3:15
8 I Wish I 2:15
9 Said Gun 2:15
10 Can't Forgive 2:36
11 Money 2:42
12 If I Never Thought About It 2:36
13 End of a Year 2:41
14 Last Song 2:44
During high school my life pretty much revolved around hardcore. Listening to The Age of Quarrel, The Way It Is, the New York Crew EP, and a slew of others on the bus ride to and from school. Doing stages dives on my bed and floorpunching across the room until my Mom came upstairs and asked me what the hell was all that noise:
"Uh, nothing Mom.. Just getting a little exercise..."
Getting a new mixtape at lunch and not being able to wait 'til school let out so I could listen to it. Dubbing the newest records for my friends. Driving around town with the crew in my mom's Dodge minivan (gangsta) blasting tunes from a crappy boom box as we took turns stage diving over the passenger seat and onto the unfortunate souls in the bench seat (I strongly recommend that you don't do this unless you are a trained professional). Making the weekly pilgrimage to our record store mecca aka Vintage Vinyl in Edison. And of course going to shows every weekend...
Ineveitably my musical interests started to branch out beyond hardcore and punk. Don't get me wrong - hardcore still ruled my life, but I became more receptive to music that didn't solely consist of a guy shouting over three chords played at a furious pace. I can't pinpoint exactly when this change in my musical outlook occurred, but one record that was pivotal in shifting my musical perspective is Embrace's self-titled LP.
It's ironic that this record was a turning point in my musical odyssey because it wasn't all that different from most hardcore and punk - at least in a superficial sense. It was loud, it was angry, there was distortion, but underneath it was a depth that was uncommon to most hardcore and punk. It was by turns catchy, discordant, dynamic, moody. Each song had a unique structure and tempo, but also a very clear purpose and an overwhelming urgency. "Give Me Back" grappled with the frustration of self-expression."Building" tackled the universal experience of fucking up over and over again. "Spoke" addressed the insistent need to make the world a better place, but ultimately feeling like the whole effort was futile:
It won't go away this driving force that makes me speak and care and care
And try to change, rearrange, make this sense of this mess
Sometimes you know I laugh And sometimes...I couldn't care less
And that brings us to perhaps the two key ingredients in making this a great album - the vocals and lyrics of Ian MacKaye. Ian gives his best vocal performance of any album he's ever appeared on. Yeah, that's right, I said it. Even better than the first two Minor Threat EP's. And then there's the lyrics. I would lay on my bed with the lyric sheet and pore over it again again. It was filled with wit and wisdom, but it was also funny as fucking hell. Allow me to quote some gems:
So you can stay cool behind your window
And choose the view you want to see
But as long as there are others held captive
Do not consider yourself free
No more looking down
You might bump your head
No more selfish tears
You haven't paid for them
No more tough-guy stance
I hear your mommy call
Your emotions are nothing but politics
So get control
Attack, defend, you live a fantasy
Nobody wants anything that belongs to you
Sometimes I'd like to kick your fucking ass
But I guess you're just a human, too
Isn't it nice I don't have to look far
To find the person who leaves the deepest scar
Isn't it sad that as long as I live
I'm the fuck-up that I can't forgive
And I could keep going, but I won't. This album changed my life, and although it probably won't change yours, it's fucking brilliant. Download it. That's an order.
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