Voto:
I would like to take a moment to focus on the cover. Caz, you call them sellouts: what does that mean? Why did they depict the symbol of peace on the cover? It's too simple to just dwell on the meaning of the symbol. In my opinion, the APC have "raped" that symbol of its original meaning. Look at it closely... doesn’t it look terrifyingly similar to a Nazi-Celtic tombstone? Representing it this way, as a crumbling stone slab with an "ambiguous" meaning, against the backdrop of a burning metropolis... is a perfect photograph of this historical moment, where Peace has been assigned the role of "justification" for war (the so-called "military missions" for peace, the word peace repeated by everyone, Bush foremost). The word peace has been overused lately, it has become worn out, it no longer holds its original value, it has almost become a battle cry, a tombstone... that symbol there, depicted so menacingly, apocalyptic, means to me: "Look where your '68 utopias have brought us! Your blah blah about love and peace? What have you 'rebels' become?" I believe my thesis is supported by the world's most pacifist song, Imagine. A dramatic, brutalized, anguished, dark version, not at all "pacifying". As if to say: "Enough with your peace & love utopias, it's no longer about 'imagining', it's time to act." Not by chance, they released the CD on November 2, the day when the electoral games were more or less settled. If they wanted to express an opinion for or against one of the candidates and possibly influence listeners' opinions, they would have released the CD much earlier. Instead, they wanted to emphasize that no matter which candidate gets elected, nothing changes at all (therefore, I do not agree with MotoSega comparing them to Springsteen and Stipe, who here take the side of the 'utopists'). A brilliant move, I think. Regardless of the musical value (Keenan is an incredible vocalist), I believe this is one of the smartest releases of the year. Neither pro nor con, simply and crudely realistic, to the core. Take for example Counting Bodies Like Sheep, does it sound like a "pacifist" peace & love & flower power song to you? The inner cover: there is a street depicted with billboards. Again, the graphic solution is important. The billboards carry slogans: "Relax, everything is fine," "Education is the enemy, keep your mind closed," etc. (these can be seen on the home page, and with a reload you can scroll through all the images). The graphic solution adopted for the billboards strongly resembles American advertising during and just after World War II. With this graphic concept, the APC wanted to say, "we are back at square one, we've regressed by 50 years... forget about peace & love," in addition to saying that "the media are brainwashing us, turning us all into sheep"... sheep (i.e., us) is another image represented in the inner cover... - to conclude: every symbol is a medal. And medals have two faces. Here is depicted the "Dark Side" of the medal (or rather, the classic 'badge') peace & love. ------ The cover of Fiddle and Drum (by Joni Mitchell), the last piece, the one solely with voice (a great Maynard), says: "And so once again/ Oh, America my friend/ And so once again/ You are fighting us all/ And when we ask you why/ You raise your sticks and cry and we fall/ ... Oh, my friend/ How did you come/ To trade the fiddle for the drum?" .... Oh friend, how could it happen that you traded the violin for the drum (of war)? ...
