Overlooked albums no1. Black Flag - My War

Overlooked albums is a new feature here on Big Static. Yes, I'm well aware that the dude over at Ear Farm already does something very similar to this with overlooked albums from the 90s but there's a subtle difference, this is overlooked albums from any time. Could have been released last year, could have been released fifty years ago. Also, as good of a job as Ear Farm does of pointing out what we should have been listening to years ago, there's still hundreds of records out there that don't get the praise they deserve. Also, I felt the desire to create something that resembles continuation within this blog and this was the best idea I had.

"My War" saw Black Flag enter new and very unexpected territory. The record came at a time when bands such as Loop, Spacemen 3 and The Jesus & Mary Chain were doing their best to head fuck all the critics that had lumbered them in to certain categories. Black Flag were of course one of if not the most common focal point of the 80s LA hardcore scene and were generally associated with chest beating, cop hating primal brutality. Their shows would often end in riots between fans and the local police. As my dad once said to me "son, if you'd been at a Black Flag show in the early 80s, you'd have pissed yourself".

Their early work, captured on "The First Four Years" and "Damaged" showed a band with a strong, simple message and enough raw anger to show that they were not to be sniffed at. But on "Damaged" their were a number of tracks leaning towards more internal lyrical focus points as opposed to songs such as "Rise Above" which were basic calls to arms for all the pissed off young men that needed something to rally around. "My War" took those mainly inward thinking aspects of their previous albums and made it the focus point for the entire record. The lyrics were still about as subtle as a steel toe cap boot to the groin and their was still that ever necessary anger but we heard Rollins yelling his way through songs about intense paranoia (my war/you're one of them/you say that you're my friend/but you're one of them) as well as all manor of personal and awkward topics. We also would see Greg Ginn's guitar work loose a bit of it's urgency (although it's still pretty vicious) in favor of more skilled and almost drone-rock like playing.

Black Flag - My War
Black Flag - Beat My Head Against The Wall

Buy My War from Amazon

Overlooked albums archive
no 2: Big Black - Atomizer
no 3: Foetus - Flow
no 4: The Icarus Line - Penance Soiree