'Florida punks get too buffed' - Against Me!. Photo / Supplied
Rating 3/5
Verdict: Florida punks get too buffed
It's easy to pick on Butch Vig, the mega producer who made his name on Nirvana's Nevermind, and more recently Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown, for being the guy who comes in and makes a much-loved rough and ready band sound more
accessible while not compromising their roots and creativity. Well, not too much at least.
On Against Me!'s last album, New Wave, with the help of Vig, the melodic and pumped-up Florida punk band maintained their unbridled rawness of old and spiked it with some spit-polished punk rock. It was like the Proclaimers-meets-Minor Threat.
However on White Crosses Vig's detractors might have a case against him for coming in and watering things down - although Against Me! have a bit to answer for too. White Crosses is still (mostly) fist-raising protest music, with lots of woah woahs, all-in sing-alongs, and slabs of guitars, but the spit-polish has become more of a permanent buffed sheen.
While frontman Tom Gabel retains his husky and metallic, almost Celtic, lilt and sings his guts out, songs like Because of the Shame and I Was A Teenage Antichrist are catchy enough but harmless. And tender songs like Ache With Me, and the melodic chug of don't dump me anthem, We're Breaking Up, give the album an even dynamic. But Against Me! are at their best when they're brazen, like on the cheery bounce of High Pressure Low and the chest-beating, onslaughts of Spanish Moss or Rapid Decompression. Jump around to those ones.
