It came out in September but it's never too late to review a good album, especially a release from a real, live, Houston post-punk band. There's normally two directions modern post-punk bands will take and those are: goth and classic, Wire style post-punk. The Art Institute has opted for the second and on "People like it when you fail", they do it in a no nonsense, stripped down fashion. The first track, "Addicted to the drug of nostalgia" certainly sets the tone for the remaining tracks with the militant, paranoid, Gang of Four-like lyrics, "all we are is in the ether, never trust the memory of others, addicted to the drug of nostalgia".
Like aforementioned luminaries, AI shows a willingness to explore the weighty themes of dependence and dystopian landscapes without sounding like a bunch whiny teenagers. The complaints levied are wry and tactful. "Your vote is but a token, and I'll use it when I need it" carries more weight than the score different ways other punk influenced bands have broached the same issue.
On tracks like "Lord Jim" and "Disharmonics" the band channels classic American post-punk bands like Mission of Burma by using mostly classic punk instrumentation of bass, single guitar, and drums. There's not the kind of obscurantist, navel-gazing, some revivalists employ but instead it's very palpable and fleshed out.
This isn't a post-punk pastiche or a tribute to post-punk, this is one of those rare acts that sounds like and feels like a bonafide continuation of the corpus of post-punk music.
Grade: A
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