Plays Pretty for Baby

Rate It! Avg: 4.5 (92 ratings)
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EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 16   Total Length: 49:44

eMusic Review

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Joe Gross

eMusic Contributor

Joe Gross hails from Falls Church, VA, one of the Chocolate City's most vanilla suburbs. He has written for Spin, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, the Washingt...more »

04.22.11
You either hated or loved Nation of Ulysses.
Label: Dischord Records

You either hated or loved Nation of Ulysses. I did plenty of both, hating one of the upper middle class's all-time sketchiest appropriations of Black Power/Nation of Islam imagery and loving that ungodly flailing sound and a live show that changed anyone who saw them. Noisier and more focused than their beloved debut, 13 Point Program to Destroy America, Plays is NOU's recorded apex. Everything here feels turned up to 11: the post-Ornette suits, the post-Mod garage riffs at mach speed, the post-hardcore tempos, Ian Svenonius screaming archly post-Situationist, spot-the-reference lyrics. Ironically, the band whose burning wail appropriated so relentlessly from the past was ripped off without mercy for most of the '90s by flail-core acts both decent (Frodus, the Blood Brothers, pretty much anybody on Gravity Records) and dire (what's up, Refused). Somewhere a band is stealing from NOU right now.

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Blake

mumeino

seriously one of the most blatantly pandering reviews i've ever read. pathetic. NoU were good by some standards but they didn't invent music with a message or that spastic noise/punk style.

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yep

Nonsensor

This is great stuff, but the allmusic reviewer definitely bought into the whole Nation "thing," which is arguably more ironic and fun than it is serious. Hard to beat this one, though.

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Um...objectivity?

MEM

Great disc, but an unusually frothing and pant-y eMusic review by Mr. Butler. Lose that sh!t.

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They Say All Media Guide

This is genius. This is a revolution, of both thought and sound. The Nation of Ulysses is unmatchable by any band ever; they have created a dialectic, a movement, and a youthful assault of the mind and senses. Like Greek to a Caucasian child, most will never understand even partially the spirit that lurks in these movements for it is about something higher than mere music. There is something that moves beyond the lingoes of “The Aspirin Kid” Ian Svenonious, the complicated scriptures that fill the liner notes, the infamous reputations of insane and overwhelming live performance. A warped hybrid synthesis of trashy garage rock, spastic jazz, and creative freedoms. Languages created and swallowed amidst the words and discordant melodies. Full of fervor, anger, wit, and remorse. Solid spastic percussion, swirling distorted guitars, droning bass, and swollen horns. Rambling exploding vocals spitting words of animosity and love, of rebellion and unity, of awakening and medicine. The Nation of Ulysses must prevail. – Blake Butler

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