My Dad Is Dead
The Best Defense

Approaching a My Dad Is Dead album always generally means embarking on a significant journey into one's psyche, especially for those who, like me (and I know there are many), sometimes find themselves better discovered by an album than by a person in the flesh.

How many times has it seemed that an album touched a key within us where it shouldn't have reached, a "rape" in the more psychological and less violent sense of the term, something that gradually enters your mind and makes you think of everything that could be wrong in your life, and how much effort it takes to attempt a futile revolution/evolution/retrogression. Mark Edwards always gives me this sensation, as if he might suddenly have to surrender, succumb, and resign, giving up on making me understand how unjust my attitude towards the world can be.

No desire to shout, more a desire to fight to get back up, undoubtedly the least resigned album I've heard so far from MDID. Right from "In The Morning" things are made clear, the atmosphere is typical of an MDID album, a splendid riff that should be a chorus, alternating with verses of pure poetry (from what can be interpreted from the lyrics, mostly absent from the web), with his monotone and monotonous voice. Surpassing the not brilliant instrumental piece "When Elephants Fight the Grass Gets Trampled", we arrive at one of the little masterpieces of this album, "Anti-Socialist", purely post-punk, it resounds in some ways like an early Joy Division piece, with punk violence not hidden this time by any subterfuge. A few more instrumental pieces, including that "Cut Out" which seems to resonate with a vintage wave and a decisively punk "It's Not What You Said", and in my opinion, the second masterpiece of the album arrives: "Hole In My Eyes". Why is this song a little masterpiece? I can't explain it; you have to listen to it and discover it, with its ways somewhat like "Something Must Break Out" by Joy Division, light dissonances, the voice that will undoubtedly remind you of someone named Paul Banks... do I have anything else to add? Perhaps that only "The Best Defense" manages to bring peace to the album, as indeed most of Edwards' "last songs" bring a breath of air that lifts you from all that passion, that vehemence.

What to say in conclusion, it's not a "Peace, Love and Murder", nor is it a "The Taller You Are, The Shorter You Get", undoubtedly it will carve out a niche among the albums to be re-listened to, for fans and non-fans alike, and probably some of these songs you will immediately recognize when they reappear randomly in your playlist.