That Stupid Club

The George Bush admin­is­tra­tion has been a com­plete joke and dis­as­ter, but times like these can gal­vanise the polit­i­cal musi­cians like no other.

Neil Young’s Liv­ing With War rocks my socks. He has not been this intense since 1994’s Sleeps With Angels, and not this raw and loud since Ragged Glory. There’s of course the hilar­i­ous and con­tro­ver­sial Impeach The Pres­i­dent, it's a song that pretty well follows the title just with a bunch of reasons, and it's a long song..." indeed. The opener After The Gar­den and The Rest­less Con­sumer are the stand­out tracks for me on first impres­sions. The entire album is streamed for free.

The other big release is Pearl Jam’s self-titled eighth stu­dio album. I found Bin­au­ral and Riot Act not up to their usual high stan­dards, but I can safely say with this one Pearl Jam is back. The Who-ish intro­duc­tion to Life Wasted kicks things off on a totally rock­ing note, and the excite­ment and energy rem­i­nis­cent of a live per­for­mance is pal­pa­ble through­out the album.

Add new albums from Tool and RHCP to the mix, and this is one of the best years for me musically.