New Politics – New Politics

New Politics are quite the band.  Their official motto is “fuck it,” their singer break dances on stage, and they’ve been doing all of this without a bassist.  It certainly makes for an interesting press release, but unfortunately for New Politics, that’s about it.  Their self-titled debut covers several different veins of rock; from punk to alternative to rap-rock.  The results are mixed, but provide for an interesting journey through the album’s ten tracks.

“Yeah Yeah Yeah” kicks it off a crunchy garage-punk riff that was clearly inspired by the great rock n’ roll revival of 2000-2002.  The track, energetic and straight-forward, is one of the album’s strongest, but is truly just alt-rock radio fodder at best.  On top of this, the verses are delivered in a sort of Beastie Boys/Rage Against the Machine white-boy rap voice, courtesy of singer David Boyd, which is positively grating.  ”Dignity” follows, with quasi political lyrics like “So kids don’t listen to your parents, the parents can’t teach us.  All they left us was a world in a mess.”  ”Nuclear War” continues this awful political posturing, spouting half-baked ideas like “Bring out your armies, let’s start a fucking nuclear war” and “Ashes to ashes, one day we’ll all fall to dust.  There will be rain from the skies to wash away the rust.”  Not only does the writing fall flat, I think they need to do a little more research into oxidation.  While highlights are few and far between, “Die For You” has a strong chorus to distract from its rapped verses, this time sung by guitarist Soren Hansen, who leans heavily upon Muses’s vocalist Matthew Bellamy instead of Zack de la Rocha.   Fittingly, closer “New Generation” sums up the entire the album with one sentence: “Pardon my French.  This is all ridiculous.”   (At least their etymology is better than their chemistry.)

New Politics, as mediocre as they seem, could be a lot better than their debut gives them credit for.  If they stuck with Bellamy’s singing over Doyd’s rapping, wrote lyrics that were not so trite, and used their influences as a foundation instead of a capstone, they could find themselves crafting some above average records.

1.5/5