Dead Kennedys
Frankenchrist

THE REVIEW

Having seen no reviews concerning this album, I took the liberty of posting my opinion as a massive ignoramus in the field, hoping not to infuriate those who know more than me with galactic nonsense.

Frankenchrist by Dead Kennedys, dated 1985, is an album that, while in my opinion losing immediacy compared to their masterful debut and the grand follow-up, really brings to light the group's ability to reinvent themselves, grafting onto solid foundations like their themes and proven style elements that nevertheless demonstrate an evolution on the musical level.

Biafra & Co. once again concentrate all their denunciation towards the entire system and the American socio-political structures, touching on the most diverse aspects -alienation, conformity, corruption, poverty- remaining almost always lucid and focused in their criticism, I say almost because I found Jello less immediate and demonic compared to the early works but almost more "entangled" by the structure of the songs themselves, even cryptic in some of his denunciations.

The four give birth to dystopian and distorted tracks that convey their message not with a sharp slap as happened with the songs of the previous two albums, but through punk rides of anti-punk or at least anti-hardcore length almost by definition, characterized by riffs that repeat incessantly and, at times, also by sudden changes of rhythm. In this sense, "Soup is Good Food", "This could be anywhere" and the martial and alienating "At my Job" are worth mentioning. Despite everything, traces of pure hardcore remain in "Hellnation" and "Jock-O-Rama", probably the most immediate, pressing and energetic songs of the work.

Sometimes they get lost in the meanders of their own progression, see the yet tireless "Stars and stripes of corruption", in which Jello delivers one of his most lucid, heartfelt, and desecrating (and lengthy) analyses of the entire system and way of thinking made in the USA; or, again, "A growing boy needs his lunch", which associates a cryptic text with a very dark sound. A separate discussion must be made for what I consider to be the masterpiece of the album, one of the most wonderfully fierce attacks on the false and hypocritical world of the music industry along with the renowned "Pull my strings"; "MTV get off the air".

A song I love from start to finish, where desecrating and parodic tones mix with sincere anger, where it is affirmed here more than ever that one must "Forget honesty, forget creativity," because "The dumbest buy the mostest\that's the name of the game". And how can one resist the initial beat with its accompanying childish chorus, Jello's boastful voice breaking in, East Bay's tearing guitar which seems to spew the piece's and the group's entire anger onto all the self-righteous in the music industry, the trumpets? Do we want to talk about the wonderful trumpets that break in during the final minutes? An epic track in the truest sense of the word, one of the many gems in DK's discography.

Ultimately an album I love less than the first two but which is nevertheless essential to fully understand the group's musical trajectory and Biafra's thought in all its entirety.