#19. Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose (2002)
"If it doesn't matter now/Then it never really did/And without this, we might as well be dead"
Apparently when Axl Rose heard about the title of this album, he was so upset that he made a voodoo doll of Against Me! singer Tom Gabel as a way of getting weird, cartoonish revenge. Whether that voodoo doll is to blame for the diminishing returns of Against Me!'s next four albums is impossible to say, but all the voodoo sorcery the guy who wrote "Paradise City" can muster will never take away from the fact that Reinventing Axl Rose is a punk rock masterpiece.
I was sixteen when I heard this album for the first time, which means it hit me like a train hits a hobo. It was something completely new to me - it was pissed-off, ragged, messy and undeniably punk, but with a distinct folk undertone and lyrics that turn angry political diatribes into heartfelt, personal affirmations. Of course, that makes Reinventing sound like a dry, serious record, which it's not. This album is FUN. "Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious" is a stand-out sing along song on an album literally full of them. It's a thoughtful song about consumerism and the price it takes on our interactions with each other, but it never lets its weighty themes get in the way of the infectious rhythm that begs to be clapped along to.
Too many punk bands just set their political beliefs to music and call it a day. This can result in some exciting and revolutionary music, but the shelf life is short. There are about a million punk songs about Ronald Reagan that may still sound good but were long ago made irrelevant. Against Me! would fall for this two albums later when they built a chorus around "Condoleeza, what are we gonna do now?" But here on their first album, they blend the political with the personal in a way that renders the distinction meaningless. Take "Walking Is Still Honest," which has an anti-religion chorus worthy of classic Bad Religion, but bases it from the perspective of a non-faithful father debating giving his kids the easy answers of religion to comfort them.
The album's best moments are complete opposites. "Baby, I'm an Anarchist" is, for better or worse, a career-defining moment for the band, presenting their radical politics with a winking sense of humor and a a gentle folk melody that gets periodically shattered by a phlegmy scream. Too many fans have taken the song seriously and used it to accuse the band of selling out when they jumped to a major label a few years later, but looking back it's obvious the song is a joke, and a great one too. It's not a political song or even an anarchist song - it's a love song, sung by a broken hearted protester who just wishes he had someone to smash windows with.
And then there's "Pints of Guinness Are Strong." It opens the album and stops me dead in my tracks every single time I hear it. A fast folk melody that would sound at home on a Flogging Molly record masks what is undoubtedly the saddest punk song of all time. It's a story about a loving marriage ended too soon by alcoholism and tragedy, with a chorus that finds the narrator pondering the same end as he drinks "until the memory of the last work week will be gone forever." This is a song that can make a basement full of drunken, bearded punk rockers cry.
About halfway through Reinventing, Tom Gabel nails the feeling of a great punk show better than anyone I've ever heard when he sings "Given the chance I'd stay in this chorus forever/Where everything ugly in this world is sadly beautiful." There will always be people who feel disillusioned and outcast by the world around them, and hopefully there will always be records and bands like this one to bring those people together. Reinventing Axl Rose looks at a broken and sad world and says that the only option is to grab a guitar and some friends and "Scream Until You're Coughing Up Blood."
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