ICEAGE: You're Nothing

Alternative rock, indie rock, rock and roll-- everyone knows it's sissy and lame now, so it's great to hear a band attempt what ICEAGE attempts on "You're Nothing," i.e. aggressive, high-energy guitar music, with screaming and feedback and noise and short, punchy tracks.

The problem for me here, then, is in the execution.  Simply put, there's hardly a hook to be found.  I don't mind this too much on the songs that attempt chaos (though even then, the band seems to be using chaos as a thing in itself, and not as a thing that can articulate, oh, cool songwriting ideas).  My beef is mostly with the songs that slow down and attempt something "arty."  They just don't work.  The guitar playing is not interesting enough, the singer is not dynamic enough, the rhythm section is mired in punk rock cliches.  At some points, the band even sounds TIRED, which is NEVER good for a hardcore-ish album.

But it's not an awful album, no.  I'll take a hundred copies of this record over whatever New Order ripoff shit money-grubbing useless tool band is playing on your local indie rock station.  Still, one wishes the album had more songs like its pretty amazing title track, which grabs hold of your attention and throttles it, with somehow increasing fury, for two minutes.  "YOU'RE NUUTTTTTHINGGGG"... That's a tremendous hook.  That's some Ian MacKaye shit.  That's what ICEAGE needs to do more.