ok so...
1.Flag burning/ ISPY 10"
I heard HTCE first, but this as a package just changed my whole fucking life. The raw production, the packaging, the linear notes, the ISPY tracks, the anger, this might be my fav album of all time, perfect in every sense. Put out by Todd of Recess records fame (also former pro skater/ ramp killer). The CD has a hidden track featuring an imaginary band called "last man on earth" consisting of Chris and Todd. The gangs all here for this one and if it had a John track on there then I would probably internally combust and ascend to the heavens.
2.HTCE
‘anti manifesto’ still takes me back to the first time I heard them and I think it's still a very relevant song for them. People these days love to hate on the vocals and sure there are a few tracks that could have been replaced towards the end, but this album put them on the fucking map. I could already hear their thrash influences despite people describing it as "typical fat sound". First 1/2 is so so solid! Leg hold trap should have made the cut, but Fat Mike thought John sounded like Kermit the frog! LOL He then admitted that the riffs were so hard on this album, that the whole (pop) punk scene was trying to play catch up for years after hearing this and that it also influenced punk in drublic musically!!!
34. LTMR
I guess I'm old fashioned when it comes to this band ... and I love John (and the weakerthans). If the 10" changed my whole outlook, this one solidified it! In and out, so fast and so polished. Fat Mike didn't want it to sound anything like the 10" which is a pity, because it is probably them at their most angry and also most direct in their message! Would love to hear a rawer version. They lost a lot of fans here and my mates thought that that was great; sort out the wheat and all that jazz! Interestingly the recent Brooklyn vegan retrospective mentioned that every track contains the lyrics "you" and "I". Chris and rest of them were defs pushing buttons and boundaries with this one! Can we talk about those John tracks too?
3.Supporting Caste
This is objectively one of their best albums, I just had 20+ years of nostalgia biases clouding my judgment. If I was new to the band, I would swear by this one!
Fault it, I dare you to!
Just the first two tracks alone, fucking hell! Chris has never let anyone else do vocals on one of their opening tracks but Todd fucking NAILS ‘night letters’. I’m not quiet about my love for ISPY and I felt a lot of Todd’s earlier tracks fell short when compared to that band’s output, but ‘night letters’ is THE track where I was like, “oh yeah, he’s still got it!” in a Mariano-esque type comeback. The title track ‘supporting caste’ too, man, is there a better ‘gandhi track? I’m partial to ‘Oka Everywhere’, but if I push my biases aside, this track is god-tier for them. The part after he whispers, “yes!”, the slow bridge part in the middle, that riff after, “you may as well DANCE!” Goosebumps every time!! And we’re only at track two!!! ‘Coaches corner’, ‘human(e) meat’, ‘the bangers embrace’
(someone could easily write a similar track about them, wait a band actually did write a sing about them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jFDfmw1N4w),
‘without love’ (cue Bill Stevenson) and then ‘last will and testament’. The addition of the Beave (I love Giant Sons too) and the blasting room production just elevate this album tenfold! This really is them in their element and I lap up every single part with a shit-eating grin!!! I should probably bump this to number three on my list in all honesty!
5. Failed States
Wait, what’s this first track? the 'Gandhi always have epic openers, why are they playing so slow? Was my initial reaction, but then that riff kicks in a Chris chucks out one of his trademark grunts and you know shit is about to drop! I actually rated failed states higher than supporting caste but in hindsight supporting caste may have aged better?
Honestly, I can’t tell so I might have to tie them! Anyway, dat cover art!!! Done by Todd too!!! There’s a few tracks on there that are a tad “meh” for me (in terms of them as a band, even their meh tracks smoke most bands), but the opener, ‘Rattan Cane’ (Top 5 Todd song easily), ‘Status Update’ (riff much?), and ‘Duplicate Keys’: fuck THAT is how you do a closing track! For such a dark album, you wouldn’t expect it to end with the line, “the unifying principle of … this universe is love” (RIFF) but it ties in with themes they touched on in supporting caste and really shows just how much they’ve grown/ evolved as humans. They as a band will always leave the album on a high note (cept HTCE) and this track is perhaps my favorite closer of theirs which is a big call! (Zoochosis though!)
6. Victory Lap
Gets a lot of hate from fans, but I personally think it’s leagues above some of their other work and contains at least one god-tier (if not more) song! They lost the Beave and it also seems that they wanted to go back to their more pop-punk tinged hay days for this one (still thrashy, but it almost sounds “light” if you put it up against failed states) Again, they absolutely slay with the opening track “god are you there? It’s me in the demin Jacket” is such classic Chris humor. ‘Comply/ resist’ fucking SHREDS! ‘Lower Order’ (they didn’t include an animal rights track on failed states), on paper looks like it will be so hard, but it gives me painted thin/ weakerthans vibes hard. Do any of you out there like Painted Thin? I fucking love them and it seems like the music here is almost a homage to those 90s Winnipeg days/ sounds. The standouts track for me though are ‘Nigredo’ and ‘Adventures in Zoochosis’ though; man both of them are honestly just so beautiful and have made me cry multiple times.
7. Potemkin
They lost a lot of fans with this one (if they didn’t already with LTMR); it wasn’t TETA v2.0 and Chris’ vocals were as strained as could be, so much so that fans actually believed that they had gotten a new singer (Glen) who was trying his best to impersonate Chris LOL. When I first dropped the needle, I was like “meh” for most of the tracks but this one is a creeper and while cliché, this album needs to be played LOUD! ‘Speculative Fiction’ proves that theory, it’s actually really good through a massive sound system. The other two standout tracks on here are ‘Americas Army’ (My name is Mindy!) and Rock for Sustainable Capitalism, the latter being probably the most scathing attack anyone has written about the punk scene (and least since Back to the Motor league), man Chris really knows how to write ‘em, every lyric in that one is gold! It's cool that after that track he never talks about the punk scene again, he was just like, "I have now completely owned you, and I will move on...", marks a big shift for them because a lot of their earlier career was spent critiquing the punk scene!
I like ‘iteration’ too, but not sure if lives up to the rest of their closers. This album grows on you though and even in 2021, it still smokes a lot of bands and the lyrical content is still relevant. The Todd tracks are where he started to find his somewhat “mellow” groove and I think they figured out that they actually needed a bit of ying to their yang after TETA. John always balanced that aspect of the band out, but TETA was just heavy from start to finish and I think that’s maybe why I ranked it last (amongst other reasons)
8. Todays Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes
Probably the only fan to rank it last. Not gunna lie, I missed John, I missed ISPY, the production is shit, there’s tonnes of filler tracks and it misses the mark for me in numerous sections.
Having said that, Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An is god tier (and I suspect it was written when John was still around), fuck the border I had seen live prior to it being released and back to the motor league shat all over scene politics. I’ll write more later I think… something about it just doesn’t click for me, I think the best way I can describe it is being too one dimensional?.
It wasn’t even until fairly recently that I fully appreciated Purina Hall of Fame and it always puzzled me as to why so many would swear by that track. I think, as I mentioned above, it lacks balance; I often make this comparison, but John was like Chris’s Flavor Flav and without him it would be like if Chuck D teamed up with KRS-One; that sounds great on paper but in reality, it just wouldn’t be the public enemy we know and love.
I understand the need for the break, without it we would never have the weakerthans or John’s solo work, but he brought something so unique, so fragile and so personal the band. I would even say that after this album dropped they realized this lack of balance hence the slower/ more experimental Todd tracks and Chris' more personal and somewhat spiritual lyrics.
Of course this is the balls to wall approach they wanted with this one, but it lacks in my mind. They’ve found their feet again and nailed their current sound, but this is a transition album where I don’t think they are either here nor there … and because of that it will always see the least amount of time on my record player. Fight me! I will say the packing is one of the best since crass stopped dropping records though!