After being brought back to a classic record, "The Feeding Of The 5000", I thought id follow up with their second full length album released the following year. Id only heard it a handful of times before and listening to the album again it pretty much takes off where the last one left. However the albums mood is slightly more depressive, pessimistic and angry. As if the monochromatic abrashion wasn't gritty enough the tone now has a little less statement and more response to the events that unraveled between the two records. Calling out The Clash again and making defeatist statements like "Were not going to change the system". Its not just in the lyrics, its in the delivery too, their is more anger, bite and despair in the voices of Crass's various singers.
But for the most part its very similar. Instrumentally its constructed from the same ideas, lots of snare lead militant percussion, dissonant noisy distortion guitars and a bouncy baseline always in the thick of it. The vocals are again apologetically blunt and stubborn, marked by the thick Essex accent. Eve Libertine makes a return on a couple of tracks, singing on "Upright Citizen" which gives it a wave of color in a sea of grey. Aesthetically its mostly the same too, sounding as if they could of come from the same recording session, maybe with a touch more clarity.
The record plays through with less striking statements and little hooks where its predecessor had many. The last three tracks unwind slowly with moments of anger fulled Punk between more atmospheric noise led movements. Its a decent record but doesn't have quite the same orchestration is the bands first, however with it being so similar its quite possibly an example with what retreading your footprints can mean musically, less memorable and not as impacting. Still a great listen though, again with a large track listing of many short songs.
Favorite Tracks: Darling, System, Upright Citizen, Demoncrats
Rating: 7/10