Fake Names - Expendables (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Fake Names is almost exactly what you want from a supergroup made of members of Minor Threat and Bad Religion (guitarist/vocalist Brian Baker), Refused and The (International) Noise Conspiracy (singer Dennis Lyxzén), Fugazi and Rites of Spring (drummer Brendan Canty), S.O.A and Embrace (guitarist/vocalist Michael Hampton), and Girls Against Boys and Soulside (bassist Johnny Temple): loud, fast, in-your-face. Recorded in just a week, the band's second album is also a lesson in economy and resisting any urge to gild the lily. "Expendables" packs on Bad Religion-style harmonies and racing rhythm with Baker's classic punk guitar sound and Lyxzén's signature call-to-revolution lyrics: "Subservient pawns in a deadly game/ As we stand in line and wait our turn to be shut down/ What do we hope to find/ The strength, the courage to take the crown." There's an ass-shaking scream-along chorus to "Targets," perhaps the most T(I)NC of the bunch. "Delete Myself" buzzes with nervous energy and backing vocals shouting the title at the end of each line. "What options are we having/ No choice this time/ And I hear what they're saying/ 'We've never been this free'/ The constant mantra of those/ Controlling me," Lyxzén wails. But the frontman has always understood the politics of dancing, and he and his Fake Names bandmates serve up plenty of sugar with the medicine. Mod "Madtown" has a swinging rhythm and "Go" layers on handclaps and a Cheap Trick-ish chorus with its garage rock vibe. Indeed, the band is proudly vocal about its power-pop influences. "On our last record [2019's Fake Names] the general influences were 70s U.K. punk and power-pop…" Baker has said. "The pop influences are a little more out front on this one and the production really helps it shine. It sounds more direct, more urgent." There are other unexpected flourishes, too, like the big, woozy, theatrical breakdown—very Queen—that closes out "Expendables" and classic guitar-rock sounds on "Don't Blame Yourself" and "Can't Take It," which also features an almost Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) riff and wildly jangling cymbals. Lyxzén really spits the words on that one—"I can't take it/ We're getting dumber by the day"—before ending in a mad Tweedlee and Tweedledum taunt of "I-I-I-I-I-I-I." In typical Lyxzén style, so much of the lyrics are an urgent tracking of the pressures of the world that haunt the singer at all hours: the "ticking clock in my head" ("Caught in Between," which shows off Canty's strutting drum beat) and the call of "imaginary enemies" to "divide and conquer everyday" (thundering "Damage Done"). The whole thing closes down with the excellent "Too Little Too Late" and its killer chorus, bouncy syncopation and, believe it or not, emo-pop melody. "Just given enough/ So we're able to work ourselves to death … those tiny crumbs not enough," Lyxzén howls like some kind of punk-rock Woody Guthrie.

TRACKLIST

01. Fake Names - Targets
02. Fake Names - Expendables
03. Fake Names - Delete Myself
04. Fake Names - Go
05. Fake Names - Don't Blame Yourself
06. Fake Names - Can't Take It
07. Fake Names - Damage Done
08. Fake Names - Madtown
09. Fake Names - Caught In Between
10. Fake Names - Too Little Too Late



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