album: Good Luck Everybody - AJJ
words: aaron eisenrich
It has to be a difficult task to write political music that is impactful, provocative, and not too stuck in one particular moment. There’s a fine line between taking a strong stance and bludgeoning the listener over the head with an oversimplified or sloganized message. On top of all of that, the songs also have to be good on their own with the politics removed. For reasons that go without saying, the minefield that is political songwriting is particularly tricky to navigate at the moment. (Imagine if Payola by Desaparecidos had been released after the 2016 election. It would be almost too on the nose. Its spring of 2015 release makes it particularly incredible).
Enter folk-punk vets AJJ with Good Luck Everybody, an album that pulls elements from every era of the group’s catalog culminating in an astounding outcome. If you’re a fan of the band, you’re likely to find tunes on here that remind of your old favorites. And if you’re new to AJJ, Good Luck Everybody is a great example of their range as a group
There are rawer moments reminiscent of People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World, but executed with the confidence of a seasoned band after years on the road. The wholly depressing (but somehow comforting in its bluntness) “No Justice, No Peace, No Hope” echoes “No More Shame, No More Fear, No More Dread” from The Bible 2, not just in parallel titles, but also in their placement on the records and the fact that they are both piano ballads. The difference between these two tracks shows what the last four years of absurd politics, online rage, and urban isolation has done not just to AJJ vocalist Sean Bonnette, but likely to a lot of us. Finally, songs like “Mega Guillotine 2020,” “ Your Voice, As I Remember It,” and “A Poem” bring to mind some of the colors of Christmas Island with their loose acoustic guitars and unique percussion provided by Thor Harris.
“Normalization Blues” is the only tune to feature just Bonette and bassist Ben Gallaty, and it’s one of my favorite songs they’ve ever done. The aggressive guitar attack evokes Richie Havens, creating an apt connection between this song and the bygone days of Woodstock protest music, but also taking that style from the boomers and claiming it for the 21st century. “Normalization Blues” mirrors “Psychic Warfare” (featuring some badass cello by Mark Glick) on the second half of the record as the two songs most overtly about the current jagoff in the oval office. The amount of terrible “resistance” music against the current president shows the difficulty of satirizing a man who is basically a grotesque caricature of the ruling class; a class that itself is a gross and shameful parroting of old European aristocracy.
AJJ pull it off well on these two songs even with very direct and explicit references. It’s hard to say how these tracks will be viewed in ten years’ time or more, but I would wager that Good Luck Everybody will age well and serve as an excellent and clever articulation of how a lot of people who maybe spend too much time online (myself included) felt kicking off 2020.
The album cover depicts Bonette and Gallaty on a beach holding (what I assume are) their dogs looking on as some surfers ride a wave being pursued by another wave of fire. In the water under the surfers (about to be washed over by the natural disaster they are ignoring) is a crowd listening to a demagogic figure giving an animated speech. Amongst the mostly blue color tones, a red hat and yellow torch stand out. The back of the album shows a grave amidst flooding water that reads “R.I.P. Subtlety.” There are other ways to sum up the mood of the times, but that image does a pretty good job of it.