[kj] So new album..where does it stand

[Neil Perry]

For all of us who've been listening to Killing Joke for such a long time,
Absolute Dissent
is like being fired back and forth through time. I think I can hear bits of
almost every
previous album on this one - in the best possible way.

Now I've lived with it for a week I think its the best thing they've done
since Night Time.
And considering how our expectations have taken such a battering over recent
years, how
most of us were maybe only hoping for something slightly better than
Hosannas, and how
the return of Big Paul could have proved disastrous considering how long
he's been away,
there is an argument for saying this is the best Killing Joke album ever.

For once, they got the songs AND the production right! Most everything else
gels too - the
running order, the range of styles, the mixture of light (ish) and heavy.
The only turd in
the swimming pool for me is Endgame, which I skip. And In Excelsis is still
a bit wishy-washy,
but its growing on me.  Singularity is top of the list at the moment,
followed by Cull,
title track, Fresh Fever, ESS - which I thought I might get tired of but
absolutely haven't - and This World Hell.
A whole album of songs like this would have been grim, but in the context of
the LP I love it. This Is
Madness for 2010.

The Raven King is OK but its all a bit Coldplay/wave your lighters in the
air innit?

But the song that has really grown on me is Depthcharge. On first listen I
dismissed it, on
2nd and 3rd listens I started loving that twisted loping reggae beat and I
have kept
returning to it like an itch I can't scratch. Then it hit me - Big Paul. I
think this is the
song where he comes into his own. There is a roll around the 1.45 mark that
just builds
and builds and explodes into the chorus, followed not long after by some
delicious little
twists from Geordie. But Paul is just on fire on this song. And It has a
Dominator/Sun Goes Down
vibe that keeps dragging me in...

Anyway, enjoying reading everyone's comments. I'd agree with Geordie
sounding a bit
marginalised on this one but it is joyous to hear Jaz singing again.

The lads went and did it!

N




On 10 September 2010 09:48, Steve Hackett <thepunisher at blueyonder.co.uk>wrote:


>  stylistically?

>

> Early days but for those who've downloaded it, what do you reckon it harks

> back to??

>

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