I’m willing to give anything recorded by Steve Albini a shot, and I will continue to do so until that trust is betrayed. With This Moment In Black History’s second album, as usual, that trust is upheld. Yet, as is happening more and more often, I find myself fairly indifferent toward his latest paycheque. If you just take this Ohio quartet’s politics at face value, I should love the Public Enemy parody named It Takes A Nation (Of Assholes To Hold Us Back). But, under the malaise of Chris Kulcsar’s constant adolescent screaming, I just can’t get into it. The righteous riffage lifted from the proto-punk past, covered in feedback and cheap synth squeals, are a cut above your local punks, but the singing makes this all seem like half-, perhaps even quarter-assed Primus. Steve Albini should be maturing, and this is decidedly average stuff for where his career should be. Then again, he may have owed these Clevelanders a favour or something. Who knows? What is certain is people will continue to cite Pixies’ Surfer Rosa and Nirvana’s In Utero as his primary career pieces, while TMIBH’s It Takes A Nation will, in all likelihood, fade away.
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