Brokestring -- Radicalized By Basic Decency
Brokestring presents a collection of righteous fury packaged as protest songs in Radicalized By Basic Decency, the second on his four-part Brokestring vs. The United States of America
Brokestring (aka Ryan Seiler) has been on a tear writing protest songs this year. June's The Same Old Song and Dance and this month's Radicalized by Basic Decency are just the first two in a four-part series Brokestring vs. The United States of America. It's worth stating upfront that political music is a tricky balancing act, and if it's not your thing, then these two albums might not be for you – at least not to listen to in a single sitting. But if you're looking for someone to encapsulate your frustration and indignant rage in three verses, a chorus, and a bridge to help you put it all into words and make you feel less alone in All of This – well, pull up a chair.
Same Old Song and Dance, the first in the series, address contemporary issues (Internet brain rot, seed oil, AI, the repeal of child labor laws) through the lens of old-time music. Seiler's careening vocals and the band's weary stomps call to mind Lavender Country: both albums feature sneering outrage and a dogged sense of hope in a hopeless world while using traditional music to interrogate how – and whether – change can really come about. Same Old Song locates our current moment in a continuum of struggle – some successful, some still in the works, some that must now be defended.
By contrast, Radicalized brings us to the present day with hard-driving roots rock and a punk rock snarl. Somehow, the combination of the two gives these songs more immediacy – but also a sense that they may not age as well as the previous album. It's not for lack of wit – Seiler sells these songs with utter sincerity, and the lyrics are pointed and incisive, truly giving voice to the miasma of darkness that opens within any time you read the news. But they land differently – maybe it's the faster tempo? It will be an interesting exercise across the span of this project to see how genre might impact the songs Seilers delivers, but the message is the same: we are swimming upstream against stupid, vindictive people – and we will persist.
