Artist: Laibach
Title: Spectre
Genre: Industrial / Avant-Garde
Release Date: 28th February 2014
Label: Mute Records
Album Review
In every “ism” there’s a “we”. Even in individualism;
Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for yourselves! You're ALL individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!
as Monty Python famously declared in ‘The Life of Brian’. And it is this very “we” that haunts LAIBACH’s latest release. The rumours of a future, the messianic belief in human rights, the ghosts of today, and the vale of tears – of which religion is the halo – according to Marx, are all present here. Once again LAIBACH try to find a point to stand against the flow of times but as most of us feel there can be no such a thing.
There have been seven, almost eight years since their latest album, ‘Volk’ (2006), and in that period the band distanced itself from the creation of a new CD, apart, that is, from the soundtrack for ‘Iron Sky’. Maybe they needed the time to reinvent themselves. I want to think this was the case but the truth is that LAIBACH, despite the playful, at times ironic, and ethereal (!) attitude seem to carry signs of tiredness. Much of the vocals’ weight is carried by Špiler, having Fras’ deep growling voice to accompany her. And instead of juxtaposing the two distinctive voices the listener gets the feeling of layers of irony hiding a deep despair as they are combined in a “we” that consists of mere two unconnected I’s. Strangely enough it befits the overall concept of the album. The “we” appears in the ‘The Whistleblowers’ cheerful tune as if the sole problem the Western democracies are facing is the lack of institutional control of NSA’s activities.
A “we” appears in the ‘We are millions and millions are one’ as love, the subject of the song, is attacked as a hypnotic utopia, “what we are you’ll become” they sing in ‘Resistance is Futile’ before the CD closes with a lamentation about the words as carriers of pain, in a wordplay upon the word Koran and its Arabic meaning reading, recitation. But what LAIBACH are gaining lyrically, stylistically, and through the vocal arrangement they are missing through their music, as they try to embed the megalomaniac goal of describing, with a single breath, pretty much at least three quarters of mankind. In their music the puns are so subtle that are close enough of not raising an eyebrow. Surely they have their tough side as in ‘Walk with Me’ or their extremely melodic one as in ‘Koran’ but they also have their lukewarm one as in ‘The Whistleblowers’ and ‘Eurovision’. Agreed, the latter side fits the theme but in any case I don’t feel the specific orchestration, the specific musical exploration, was the only one available for their goal.
Overall, it is a cool CD, maybe your cup of tea if you’re more into the lyrics and the (I repeat) subtle, sense of irony and despair. If you’re thinking in terms of a dance-floor maybe you’re looking at the wrong band, at the wrong turn of their history.
Tracklist
01. The Whistleblowers
02. No History
03. Eat Liver!
04. Americana
05. We Are Millions And Millions Are One
06. Eurovision
07. Walk With Me
08. Bossanova
09. Resistance Is Futile
10. Koran
Bonus Tracks (Deluxe Edition)
11. The Parade
12. Love On The Beat
13. Just Say No!
14. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
Line-up
Milan Fras – vocals
Ivan Novak – lights, projection, electronics, and vocals
Mina Špiler – vocals, synthesizer
Janez Gabrič – drums
Luka Jamnik – synthesizer
Sašo Vollmaier – synthesizer
Websites
https://www.facebook.com/Laibach / http://www.laibach.org/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 9
Total: 8 / 10
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