The Bright Lights of America,
Anti-Flag
If I'm honest I find Anti-Flag hard to stomach. I don't have a problem with bands working with major labels and I don't have an issue with people wanting to use as big a stage as possible to spread their message, but I find it hard to believe when a band spends it's time slagging off majors and then signs to one (Also see Rancid). I'd also argue that while the message may well still be there, Anti-Flag's politics could be argued with a 14-year-old - they're hardly a band with any depth and they don't always convey their message in a clever way (as bands such as Propagandhi can do). Add in the fact this is very much a mainstream record aimed at getting played on a wider stage and, well, we're not off to a good start.
'The Bright Lights of America' is much catchier than Anti-Flag's older material. There are full on choruses and it's there's hardly any abrasive attitude that sparked some of their earlier tracks. It's all a bit mid-paced and passionless. I can't handle tracks like 'No Warning' and the album's title track which intend to push forward the message the USA is a sack of shit country with no morals and a tendency to want to go to war and hurt innocent people. But it's an argument we've heard time and time again and it's been done better by many bands - incidentally Anti-Flag have also done this better in the past.
Musically there are some catchy songs here and if you're new to the punk rock game and fancy rebelling against your mum and dad, Anti-Flag's Ladybird guide to politics is a good starting point. But the message is so utterly basic that I personally cannot take it seriously. When the band actually go for it, as they do on 'Spit In The Face' they sound like the band of old; a band with a point and a band on a mission. But for the most part this is slow, dull and very predictable. Anti-Flag are simply a shadow of the band they used to be.
