Middle Class Rut - No Name No Colour Album Review

Political rock music is a dangerous path to follow. At its best it can inspire thought and action on a mass level while delivering some kick ass tunes as well (for example Rage Against the Machine), but at its worst, it can seem tired, out dated and lazy, just like The Smashing Pumpkins' Zeitgeist album, or any one of the thousands of pop punk bands who wrote Bush-baiting slabs of vitriol (yes, I'm looking at you Green Day). No Name No Colour comes across as well thought out but not preachy and features some great moments.

The album opens with Busy Bein' Born, a slow building track built around a stop-start riff that kicks things off in a brilliantly noisy way, even bringing in a Tom Morello-esque guitar solo. Following this is one of the albums many fast punk styled rockers USA - a song about being a disillusioned American (it seems to be a recurring theme through the album). The album really finds its feet on these noisier songs, like this one as well as Lifelong Dayshift and Thought I Was. For a two piece band these guys sure do make a hell of a lot of noise.

Middle Class Rut might not start a fire like RATM once did, but No Name No Colour is a fantastic album with some true gems on it - you could do worse than picking it up.

Ben Walton