New Wave

Against Me! | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 10, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sire / London/Rhino
• ASIN: B000QFCD0Y
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,786 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #13 in Music > Alternative Rock > New Wave & Post-Punk > Urban Folk

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Against Me! made the mistake of releasing one of the more beloved independent label debuts of the decade with 2002's Reinventing Axl Rose, and have been playing a game of catch-up ever since. Tom Gabel's Billy-Bragg-meets-the-Clash songcraft melded punk and folk, the political and the personal, and rocked pretty damn hard as well. Their output since then, while not at all disappointing, has necessarily lacked that shock of discovery. But with New Wave, one gets the sense that the band is hoping to finally move on. Released on a major label with big-time producer Butch Vig onboard, it's a rock record, full of straight-up stomp and swagger. Tracks like "Thrash Unreal" and "Americans Abroad" tear it up with a party-band brashness reminiscent of something like Rocket From the Crypt, or even Jimmy Eat World. But of course, Gabel has more on his mind than just a good time, and beneath the headbanging is a core of frustration and burning discontent with the world, with fame, with being chronically misunderstood. Lines like "you have to fight to stay in control of the situation" (from "Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart") and "are you restless like me?" (from "Up the Cuts") keep barking out from under the guitars, culminating in the soul-searching final track, "The Ocean." You'll have a good time with New Wave, but a sense of unease will be there in the morning, picking at your brain like a memory you can't quite place. --Matthew Cooke

Product Description

Making their debut studio album, New Wave produces Against Me!, raising the agressive folk-punk, anarchist protest music up from the underground.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars New Age - New Direction July 10, 2007

By Jna Sigurardttir

Format:Audio CD

True, many long-time Against Me! fans will probably miss the bands folk-punk roots. This is not a folk-punk album. It is a great album none the less. As a long time fan, I can forgive Tom and Co. for not wanting to release the same record over and over again.

Electric-guitar driven, three chord punk music at its best. I love the new sound and everything Butch Vig has done on this record.

Against Me!, like others before them, have grown and moved forward with their music. If your own taste has not moved in the same directions as theirs, so be it. But is it fair to demand that the band remains at the same place with you?

And please, people... Can we all put the move to Sire behind us already? What about just keeping it about the music?

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars You Say You Want a Revolution September 16, 2007

By Tim Brough TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

"Are you restless like me?" barks lead singer Tom Gabel on Against Me!'s terrific "New Wave." If maybe you are, then this pounding rock record will make you jump up and shake off some dirt. "New Wave" opens the album by delivering clean and crisp rock and roll in a short, sharp blast (courtesy of producer Butch Vig), barking out anthemic lyrics like it's 1978 and they've just heard of The Clash or even Bad Religion for the first time. From there, the heat never lets up. While this may not be the political firebrand some punk rockers of that era would have been, there is still enough grousing in the songs to make you feel the band gives a toss.

That kind of frustrated fury underscores "White People for Peace," where a useless and stupid war riles up the populous. So how does the mob respond? "Protest songs in response to military aggression," howls the lyric, "but the battle raged on." It is hard to tell if Against Me! would prefer more protest or they are disillusioned with the fact that the guitars can't block the bullets. (My guess would be a little of each.)

After that, a lot of "New Wave" runs on the world of rocking. Both "Up the Cuts" and "Stop!" argue that you can be a great band if you stay true to yourself, and (in "Stop!") that success is the best revenge. "Piss and Vinegar" and the title song takes mainstream radio/tv to task for being bland purveyors of nothing in particular. Expanding on that theme, the catchy shout-along "Americans Abroad" looks depressingly at the band's world tour and discovering "everywhere that we go Coca-Cola's already been."

If you're looking for troubled relationships, they are here as well. Tegan (of Tegan and Sara) duets on "Bourne on the FM Waves of the Heart" and more base urges grunt from "Animal." There's also a lament for an aging junkie club-girl in "Thrash Unreal." And it all clocks in at 33 minutes. Thing is, "New Wave" sounds so loud, so insistent and so vital, that I have just kept hitting repeat every time I slip it in my CD player. Which has been a lot, lately. Against Me! have already found their way onto my list for one of the best of 2007.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible March 22, 2008

By casey

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of those CDs that gets better every time you listen to it - you can listen to the whole thing straight through because each song is solid. "Thrash Unreal" sounds almost like pop at the first listen, but like the other songs the underlying meaning of the song is a bit more cynical.