SLC Punk fucking sucks and is, as far as I can tell, an extremely poor, inaccurate and Hollywood-ish caricature of punk and anarchism.
That having been said, and being a great admirer of their earlier work, I must say that my initial reaction to New Wave was, like many others, that AM! had sold out.
However, upon further contemplation and re-listening without prejudice, I can only say that it is a great album. It's not in the same class as Crime, the Accoustic EP or RAR. Not the least. But the important thing to remember is that it never tries to be. Since those albums, AM! has developed strongly, a development which was already noticeable on releases such as The Disco Before the Breakdown. Listen to the title track or "Tonight We're Gonna Give It 35%" and tell me it is fundamentally similar in style to RAR (which was already far more Rock-ish than earlier releases). If you can do that, you're kidding yourself.
New Wave is not a folk-punk or accoustic punk album. That isn't its purpose. It is a Rock album, and taking that into consideration, it's a damn good one. The worst thing I can say about the album is that it is on Sire, owned by Warner Group, a member of the RIAA sons-of-bitches. Also, Butch Wig's remix of White People for Peace is horrendously bad.
Concerning the song in question, I have to agree that it is probably the best on the album. It proves that despite much has changed for AM!, they are still capable of writing profound and moving songs.
SLC Punk fucking sucks and is, as far as I can tell, an extremely poor, inaccurate and Hollywood-ish caricature of punk and anarchism.
That having been said, and being a great admirer of their earlier work, I must say that my initial reaction to New Wave was, like many others, that AM! had sold out.
However, upon further contemplation and re-listening without prejudice, I can only say that it is a great album. It's not in the same class as Crime, the Accoustic EP or RAR. Not the least. But the important thing to remember is that it never tries to be. Since those albums, AM! has developed strongly, a development which was already noticeable on releases such as The Disco Before the Breakdown. Listen to the title track or "Tonight We're Gonna Give It 35%" and tell me it is fundamentally similar in style to RAR (which was already far more Rock-ish than earlier releases). If you can do that, you're kidding yourself.
New Wave is not a folk-punk or accoustic punk album. That isn't its purpose. It is a Rock album, and taking that into consideration, it's a damn good one. The worst thing I can say about the album is that it is on Sire, owned by Warner Group, a member of the RIAA sons-of-bitches. Also, Butch Wig's remix of White People for Peace is horrendously bad.
Concerning the song in question, I have to agree that it is probably the best on the album. It proves that despite much has changed for AM!, they are still capable of writing profound and moving songs.