The Reactionaries - Ingenuity


Last but not least, it's Ingenuity from Belgian Punk Band The Reactionaries. Not to be confused with the 70s/80s American Punk band who morphed into The Minutemen. I should do a whole series called Names Are Hard, Let's Use That Discontinued One, Surely No One Will Notice. 

Belgian politics is really fun because Liberal equals Right Wing. It's a Monarchy, and a Federation, it has a constitution, and its government is a Representative Democracy with a bicameral Parliament. Language is a major political issue because French and Dutch essentially represent the Upper class and the Proletariat respectively. 

Many people consider Belgium a "flawed Democracy," but i am Bottle, hear me say "nope, they're using all those words properly. How refreshing." What's this album about, then? 

The answer is half an hour of the most gloriously disheveled, dive-bar, stoner-tinged trashy rock and roll this side of Danzig era Misfits. Calling this fantastic is a tragic understatement. My head hasn't banged this hard in months, possibly years. Winner of the Bottle of Beef Proves My Theory That The Best Music Already Happened 10 Years Ago In A Different Country award. 2009 would have been a hell of a lot more enjoyable with this pumping into my earballs, i can tell you that.

But are their lyrics any good? Let's see, sarcastic swipe at consumer culture, wish someone would have told me i was making the same mistakes over and over again, now's a good time to look at the world and actually empower ourselves, peace out i quit, i'm done with your garbage so you try to make me the bad guy, some people are afraid of the discomfort of change, consumer culture is the real enemy, stealing your health, individuality, and human wealth. Yep, superbly coherent lyrical concept that circles back around and reiterates its point in a straightforwardly emphatic conclusion. Call this the second 10/10 i've ever awarded. 1) it rocks, 2) it's intelligent, 3) not a single swear word or derogatory sentiment on the whole album in spite of its critical perspective... I don't actually have 10 points to make, but you get the idea. Awesome album, definitely carve out some time to crank it up as loud as possible. I guarantee you won't be sorry.

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