Fugazi – The Argument

Call in sick, lock the doors and take the phone off the hook – there’s a new Fugazi album out, their first ‘proper’ release since 1998’s End Hits. What’s more is that the DC legends have eschewed the stark and jarring styles of both its predecessor and Red Medicine and returned to something more akin to Margin Walker or Steady Diet of Nothing. Whether this is a good thing or not is a matter of personal taste – many critics rate Repeater as the band’s finest work, but I’ve always loved the Margin Walker / Steady Diet stuff. Indeed some of this record is downright melodic, the fantastic Full Disclosure as close as Fugazi get to straight ahead rock. As usual however Guy Picciotto’s distinctive vocal style and the inventive guitar work of both Picciotto and Ian MacKaye give this song the edge that marks Fugazi out as the definitive band of the post-hardcore era.

After the opener Cashout explodes into Full Disclosure the first side of the record continues with a gradual decrease in tempo and ferocity through Life and Limb (which also features female backing vocals) and slowing right down for the contemplative ‘The Kill.’ The dark tone continues onto the second side with the menacing cello and piano accompaniment to ‘Strangelight’ reminiscent of Godspeed You Black Emperor. This is still Fugazi though, and thankfully the band refrains from 12-minute post-rock noodlings, bringing things back into more familiar territory with the jagged Ex-Spectator. The Steady Diet era sound returns in full for Nightshop which features a classically Fugazi lead guitar line backed up by not only the taut rhythm section of Joe Lally and Brendan Canty, but also additional pummeling percussion from Jerry Busher. The title track closes the album, with the line ‘here’s what’s striking me, that some punk could argue moral ABC’s when people are catching what bombers release’ chillingly appropriate given the present world situation.

With the music as innovative as ever, and lyrics that lean more to the poetic and allusive than some of their more direct work (e.g. End Hits’ Five Corporations), The Argument is proof that Fugazi have yet to release an inessential album.

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