Landing soon!
NYC trio Straw Man Army return with their fourth LP, and with it list an unexpected set of references in The Byrds, Love and Popol Vuh. Punk bands citing non-punk influences is not an especially unique prospect, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be seen as unusual, and certainly opens up the forum into which we can understand True North. In truth, Straw Man Army have always presented as a somewhat leftfield aberration in modern punk songwriting, their combination of melody-fwd songcraft, chiming guitars and marching drum patterns often undercut with tangential sequeways that hinted at interests beyond their direct milieu. Here they seem to indulge those instincts a stage further with the introduction of several instrumental interludes that split up the array of politically-centred lyrical earworms, though I will admit I can’t say I personally hear too much of The Byrds, Love or Popol Vuh. Here, for me, Straw Man Army sound a great deal like they could be a lost early 21st century indie-punk band, somewhere between the axis of Leo brothers activity (The Van Pelt/The Lapse/The Pharmacists) and the transgressive hardcore of groups like Fucked Up and Titus Andronicus, albeit with perhaps an even greater focus on hooks and melody. These are frequently highly addicting songs that bear repeated listens, something you might do mostly just to get your head bent around the sheer volume of words being sung. Once you do get a read on the sentiment of those words, a contrast between the medium and the message reveals itself - in case you didn’t realise, things are bad you know. Straw Man Army have worked out that delivering that idea with a kiss rather than a fist is a winning way to land it.
FFO: The Van Pelt, The Lapse, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Titus Andronicus
