Customer Reviews

Keep Them Confused

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

it's a change from the previous albums, i'll admit that. but with this cd, it's a natural progression. and it sounds good. you have to give this cd a chance. more than one listen will suffice. each time it gets better and you appreciate the music more. musical artists grow and progress and mature. they can't always stay the same. give this cd a chance and it'll grow on you.

Well this is the follow-up to the excellent Hard-rock bottom. Which was just as good (if not better) than More betterness. It was already obvious form these two releases that the band decided to decelerate a bit and adopt a sound somewhat softer than their earliest releases. With this one the trend is clear. It doesn't sound like a punk hard-core band anymore. It is closer to pop. Yes, believe me! Yet, it is really easy to identify this as being a No Use album. The lyrics are very good, as usual. Probably much more political than on any other release of the band. It's less catchy than usual also. Much more uniform. However, I find it nice. But probably many fans will be disappointed because it's very slow and melodic (the pop way). Anyway, it's worth trying.

Holy crap! Look at all the comments... Sell out's? How can a band like No Use be sell out's? Seriously, these guys came to the bottom of the world to play in the Adelaide UniBar all night for 15 bucks a pop in an over-18 concert to skater punks and other randoms a couple of years ago, while Good Charlotte hired out a stadium down the road and played to a hoard of hysterical 13 year old girls and their parents who all paid 60 bucks to hear them spew crap for about 20 minutes. Who sees a difference? Hands?

I get the point, and agree, that their sound nowadays has more broad appeal, but is that a bad thing? And could it be that this was where they were going anyway, not what the bottom line lured them into?

For those who've journeyed with these guys since Leche or Daily Grind, hopefully you're not still living with your parents and trying to figure out how best to pop pimples. Hopefully you're not in the same place you were then, just like these guys aren't in the same place anymore. That's life: a roller-coaster ride. For me, the only reason No Use are still in my car glove box is because they've changed with me:
-When I was 15/16 - Feeding the Fire aptly summed up my pent-up, hormone-driven, I-wanna-get-the-hell-outta-this-place frame of mind.
-When I was 17 - More Betterness took my frustration and made it understandable. This album made me normal, and helped me to deal with high school crap. This album was also the first No Use album to have the flavour of girls in it. Appropriate for me; I was in my first real relationship.
-When I was 20 - Rock Bottom upped the ante on the girls again, actually a little too much I reckon (this one's their weakest offering, in my opinion). The beats were a little slower, and the topics were more mature. 9/11 had made its mark on Tony's lyrics, and he seemed to be able to explain the world around me succintly and poetically. His distain for organised religion, his anti-conservatism, his fight to make something of himself, all of these came through in this album that summed up my life.

Now I'm nearly out of uni, and their latest album is different again. More melodic and more literal again in the lyrics. I think this album shows everything from their past albums and more. Its got the fast-paced energy of yore (Bullets, Killing Time, etc), and the pollitical activism of Betterness and Rock Bottom (in Divine Let Down and Its Tragic among many). But its also got the girls (Fiona) and the self-deprication (Apparition).

Maturity is coming (slowly), for better or worse into the music of No Use. If you're growing up with them, you'll appreciate this offering. If you still want the angst there are legions of young punk rockers out there, but No Use have moved on. Deal with it! They aren't sell-outs, and they aren't pathetic sad sacks. They take the world and slice it up into 2-and-a-half minute postcards that give you a well thought out, alternative frame of reference. Its not boring or bland, but its not so completely angry either. I like the range of emotional expression on this album. I like the mix of logic and feeling. I like high production values. I like the melodic voice.

If you haven't heard it yet, you really are missing out. The best way to describe Keep Them Confused is that its where you would guess No Use would be if you watched them grow from Leche onwards. The only quirk might be that *tears of pride* Rory finally learned a couple of new beats! I really felt listening to Rock Bottom that he'd stagnated a bit, and every drumline was the same... Its a bit less punk, and a bit more emo, but they are still a long way from dressing in black and painting their faces (cf Green Day!). Its the same old No Use, with a splash of Something Corporate.

From me, I give Keep Them Confused 4 stars. Why? This is a damn good album, but I can't give an album I've only heard a few times the same rating I'd give More Betterness, the best CD on the planet. If I still love this CD in 6 years, it'll be a 5. That might be a bit arbitrary, but this album does seem to lack the gut-churningly haunting pain and beauty of More Betterness that I'm so thankful for.

In a sentence: This album absolutely stinks of awesome, and its exactly what I expected. You're almost definitely going to like it..

This album rocks. I am of the opinion that this is their best one yet. I am a long time fan of nufan and I think with every release their musical talent and intellect shines through with increasing clarity. Full of grit, hope, and fear, this is an emotional outpouring that I will gladly absorb...again and again.

This album is the best ever yet! No Use for a Name continues to do out do themselves and it provens through the brilliant lyrics and fast paced hard melodies. This album has a little something for everyone! This is definately album of the year!

One evening in the Spring of 1998, over a four-hour drive across the Maritimes that was essentially comprised of me squeezed into the backseat of a friend's older brother's car, my eleven-year-old ears found themselves tuned to the small speaker on the lefthand side passenger-door, which poured out a fast, raw, yet melodic kind of music that I had never before heard in my lifetime. I eventually mustered up the courage to ask the Older Brother what was playing, and within a few hours the twenty-five dollars my parents had given me for "emergency expenses" had found a purpose: Making Friends, by San José-based punk rockers No Use For A Name. It's safe to say that, if not for this group's existence, my taste in music would likely have been forever altered-a scary thought when you consider the current state of mainstream bands.

I begin with that digression because my introduction to independent music through NUFAN also provided me with an everlasting gratitude towards them. This gratitude would soon come in handy, because I got into the band at a point in their career where they were about to make considerable changes to their sound and, by consequence, their fanbase. Let us remember that their glory days are thought by the vast majority to have been between 1995 and 1997. At the time Fat was a respected but modest-sized label, with only NUFAN, Lagwagon, and possibly Good Riddance selling any considerable amounts of records. Of course, the label's popularity dramatically increased over the years. Fat got bigger and wealthier, and eventually could afford to carry this bigness and wealth into the albums that they released. Nowadays all of the bands on Fat, regardless of their folk leanings or deliberately overpowering guitars, sound clean, crisp, and professional. The signature Fat-sound has been taken in stride by pretty much everybody; rarely will you see someone criticizing, say, the crystal-clear acoustic beginning of a Larry Arms song. Unlike their Fat Wreck peers, however, NUFAN hasn't received the same generous treatment. The main reason is that the band decided to rely on a more accessible, mellowed-down sound. But a deeper reason, I think, is that the band also decided to discard their image as one of the 90s prime raw skatepunk acts: the rough-edged torch-bearers had thrown away their torches and begun to play nice, and people took offense to that. More Betterness!, with its clean/poppy guitar tone and vocal style, brought detractors to say that the band had "sold out," a ridiculous assertion if there ever was one. Its equally accessible successor, Hard Rock Bottom, fared well with critics and open-minded listeners, but not with most of the old-time fans. However, my immense gratitude towards the band made me overlook all of this criticism, and I was able to see that, rather than softening their sound, NUFAN were putting an emphasis on melody instead of energy, and, rather than going nu-emo by writing acoustic ditties, they were merely incorporating new elements into their sound to ensure freshness and longevity.

So, after seven years of losing and gaining fans due to change, NUFAN have dropped their ninth full-length, Keep Them Confused. Does it revert to the sound found on their mid-90s album? Has the band become even poppier than before? Well, yes and no, and both answers apply to both questions. Keep Them Confused essentially marks a progression into a more rock-based territory, with nonetheless a few strong nods to their early skatepunk roots that were perhaps overlooked in the last two studio albums.

First, the rock. By design rock is slower than punk, and many of the songs on this album are effectively mid-tempo in speed. However, the crunchy and buoyant guitars call to mind the anthemic, no-nonsense brand of rock from acts such as Duvall and Jawbox. As far as melodies are concerned, this is easily the most accomplished album NUFAN have ever recorded. They are mainly pop in nature, though I use "pop" in the same way that I refer to the summer-bright harmonies of groups like the New Pornographers and the Shins-begging to be sung-along to, but possessing plenty enough of substance and depth to endure countless listens. The chorus of "There Will Be Revenge" borrows the finest parts from Jawbreaker's "Sluttering" to be addictive upon first listen, but the band transforms the remainder of a song into a punky romp that will cause many bodies to move when played live. The soft verses of "Black Box," which consist of an array of violins, synths, and acoustic guitars, explode into a mesmerizing chorus that would dominate the airwaves were it ever made available on commercial radio.

Then there are the nods to the past. For starters, the production on here is much beefier than their last two studio albums, giving the songs the same loud (if cleaner) sound of Making Friends. Tony Sly's voice hasn't reverted to its early rawness, but he sings quite aggressively throughout most of the record. Though they have been reduced in numbers, there are still some fast moments on this album. "Part Two," "Check For A Pulse," "Bullets," and "Killing Time" all showcase NUFAN at their fastest; there also appears to have been a special emphasis on the band's part to give these fast songs more bite than they've had on the past two albums. A special note about "Bullets": it's their hardest since "The Answer Is Still No." Purists rejoice: Tony even screams!
Sly's lyrical repertoire continues to improve with each release. It should be noted that Keep Them Confused is more political than anything they've done in the past. The fallacy of religion and its role in the ongoing war presents itself in "Divine Let Down": Guilt is an entity of its own fall from grace/And self-worth is their reminder/To feel out of place in your own home. Yes, the relationship songs that have irked so many maintain their presence, but Sly has constantly steered clear of sounding cheesy. Take the aforementioned "Black Box," with its poignant metaphoric lines: "Our worlds collide in new beginnings/It's an emergency permission to bail out/So when the heart crash lands/What memories will survive?/I thank my black box that I'm alive." And in "Killing Time" Sly combines political commentary and relationship together to describe a mother's hopelessness at the face of her son's defection to Iraq: I feel like I'm lost, drowning out at sea/Surrounded by space with no regard for sympathy/She sees the parade for victory and war that wasn't won/"I'm not coming home; he's my only son."

Keep Them Confused is both an amazing and an interesting album. It's amazing in that it provides us with twelve melodic songs that rank near the top of NUFAN's extensive catalogue, and it's interesting in that it leaves us with one pressing question: what next? Will the band venture deeper into the mid-tempo rock territory showcased here? Will the fans' response to "Bullets" spark the band to revisit their sound of yore? Regardless of the direction NUFAN eventually choose to take, the variety of material presented on this record is so great that people should look forward to whatever choice the band makes.

To summarize Keep Them Confused, I'll say that it finally marks a point in which the band has found an original sound. As great as they were (and still are), NUFAN's mid-period albums won't ever be included among the most original recordings of the 90s. This record, however, brings a truly original brand of rock, pop, and skate-fueled punk that I've yet to hear from any other band. My one complaint about Keep Them Confused is that it's nowhere near as life-changing as Making Friends. But then, to me, no other album is or ever will be.

NUFAN don't disappoint with this cd.It's one of there best.Keep them confused needs a couple hours in your cd player before you see it's true value. best songs are It's tragic,There will be revenge,For Fiona and Check for a pulse.

An amazing, emotional (not to be confused with 'emo') record. And they're not going soft or 'selling out' - they're just getting older. Much like myself, unfortunately... Damn.

But yeah, I own hundreds of punk albums and this is one of my favorites.

How can you say these guys became sell-outs? I've never even heard any of their songs on the radio, or played on MTV (okay, well maybe fuse one time).

Anyway, about the cd. The first song, Part Two, is a love song, I think ("I hope that I can seem flawless to you/ and always take away the pain that you'll go through"). It is a good song, and is a nice opener. The next one, There Will be Revenge is a metaphor song for someone who is a hero who goes bad I guess. I like it. For Fiona is next, a song Tony Sly wrote for his wife. He sounds honest in his message, and the sound is tight and catchy. Might be my favorite NUFAN song. When the next one (Check for a Pulse) starts, it is slow and accoustic, but then speeds up quickly. Divine Let Down is one of the best tracks on the album, it is peaceful and calm, and has smart lyrics as well. Black Box is also great, with nice drums in the background that sort of fades out a little bit. Bullets is about questioning whether we really have faith in our religeon, and it is a really smart, well thought out song. Failing is easier (Part Three) is an instrumental, it takes a while to get off the ground, and is not really one of my favorites. In Apparition, he is struggling against his ego. It's Tragic is next, where the band clearly is getting more political, where there is a part with a speech in it. Killing Time is excellent, be it is kind of sad, it talks about a war (also political) and how a woman loses his only son. Slowly Fading Fast is nice, and the closer, Overdue, is definitly a heavier song then any of the others. Awesome album.

I'll admit, my first listen disappointed me. Every NUFAN fan knows that they've been progressing away from the aggressive vocal style that made most of us fall in love with them, and the latest album continues in that direction. It's hard to get past that on first or second listen, especially with some of the slightly stranger songs such as Divine Let Down, but with repeated plays you'll find that the melodies here have never been stronger, the songwriting is still top notch, and there's actually more fast stuff on here I believe than their last album or two. I'm confident that any No Use fan will grow to love this album; it may not be your favorite but it's still classic No Use For A Name.