01.
Against Me!
New Wave

What a perfect record. I first came across Against Me! as a support act at a gig in San Francisco. Their set was fun without being outstanding, but it was enough, when coupled with a barrage of good reviews from the US (and the fact that this, their fourth album, was produced by Butch Vig) for me to buy it. I picked it up in the summer, and have not stopped playing it since. On the face of it, there is nothing all that special here: this is a catchy pop-rock album, which clocks in at just over 35 minutes. What sets it apart is the sheer quality of the songs, all of which are totally amazing. There is a simple enjoyment of primal rock music on this record. Lyrically, the album offers fairly basic nuggets of Americana, but these are brilliantly punctuated with political rallying calls. Yet, Against Me! don’t fall into the usual (and so easy) anti-Bush platitudes. Instead, they simply ask their listeners to think for themselves (“Stop, take some time to think, and figure out what’s important to you” is a beautiful example). It doesn’t matter so much what you believe, so long as you think about the world. ‘Protest Song’ manages to balance being both a protest song, and a commentary on the ridiculousness of bands trying to change the minds of governments through protest songs. Very clever, on either level. ‘Ocean’ is a non-judgemental look at gender confusion, and ‘New Wave’ itself is a simple assertion that music is enough.

Butch Vig has excelled, as he has done so often before, at somehow capturing a brilliantly catchy sound, which is nothing short of pop, whilst also retaining a real edge to a band that come across as very raw live. This is both pop and rock, proud of being a cross-breed, and it is a sublime example of both. To show how much I’ve liked this album, my ipod playcount averages about 65 plays for the tracks on New Wave. The next highest album on the list is the Cold War Kids record, which averages at 24…

I think this may be my favourite album produced by Butch Vig.

Buy it.