nofx - the decline

||| A punk rock master piece |||

.:: The most liberating thing about being punk as hell must be the fact that all common sense and accountability can be tossed out the window, or so NOFX seems to claim on The Decline.

Tracked out as one number, with songs running together, proves just how far NOFX will go to make its records difficult to its fans listen to as well as just how much all its songs sound the same. Running through 18 minutes’ worth of music, it’s really tough to figure out where one song starts and the next begins. Filled to overflowing with substanceless punk-lite, The Decline offers little outside of the cliché snotty, obnoxious hijinks aped from the legends surrounding Sid Vicious.

The bulk of the songs on this record recreate the two songs NOFX continually rehashes with each release: its fast, driving punk, akin to Lagwagon on cheap speed, and its bouncy pop-punk with indigestion sound, neither of which veer off of the path NOFX already beat for itself on previous albums. While in short doses these songs prove to show a bit of punk flash, after about three in a row, the band’s limited scope proves to be ultimately suffocating, even over a brief period. Between the incessantly unchanging beats, plunky bass lines and rabid guitars, listeners nearly get pushed out of the NOFX equation.

That isn’t to say the band totally confines itself to its knee-jerk East Bay punk on this EP, however. Just as the band messed around with ska on earlier efforts, it picks up the current punk flavor of the month, emo, at brief times. With slower and more dynamically oriented arrangements, NOFX lends emo some much-needed guts. Keeping solid with the punk attitude, the band’s slower jaunts prove to be the highlight on this record, possibly because of their rarity serves as a breath of fresh air, or because NOFX finds a take on emocore striking a balance between its ethos and the band’s snotty demeanor.

The bright spots on this record are few and far between, however, as the band sticks to its tried and true mixture of near-illiterate propagandizing and whiny vocals. Taking on such targets as corruption in the government, the NRA and religion, NOFX’s targets are as blatantly obvious as its approach to its music. While the band could have redeemed itself thematically, its lyrics don’t aim for anything higher than mere complaining; without novel insights or answers to the questions its raises, The Decline’s politics don’t offer much that couldn’t be found outside a barber shop filled with retired men on a Sunday afternnon.

For NOFX it has never been about pushing the envelope as much as the band would like to believe, but rather a simple matter of filling every nook and cranny of it. While not moving on in any respect, The Decline serves as a perfect epilogue to So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes (1998, Epitaph) continuing the same direction the band found with that record. www.aversion.com

.:: Nightmare! Recording this fuck was a total nightmare. Writing it was a total nightmare. I'm glad we did it but I wouldn't do it again. We went back to the studio 3 different times and added stuff and remixed and remastered 4 times. It ain't no rock opera like song remains the same or nothing. We got the idea from subhumans, not rush. Why an 18 minute song? Just to do something different. We've done enough short songs, time for a long one. Anyway, my advice, never try this song at home. NOFX

download: nofx - the decline

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