If you’re not sure who Future of the Left are, you should quickly acquaint yourself with the band’s particularly harsh form of hard rock music by playing the video above. That’s “Sheena is a T-Shirt Salesman,” lead single (?) from the their new LP The Plot Against Common Sense, and man, is it an angry, angry piece of music. All churning guitars and furious, shouted vocals, it’s the kind of song that doesn’t really exist anymore except in the headphones of very particular listeners, although I’ll be careful to check my “too obscure” references so that I might not be labeled a hipster (which might very well be the worst thing one human being can say to another, just short of “cunt”).
It’s not even that Future of the Left are a band that go out of their way to pander to only the hippest of listeners — much of their music is composed of genuine pop hooks set to heavy guitars/drums, distorted bass and clever lyrics. It’s not exactly the most complicated musical formula out there right now, and yet they haven’t really seemed to find their footing in the mainstream. They’ve got a strong fanbase, a small but dedicated mass of guys and gals who are more than willing to go to every show or buy their records, but they just haven’t yet breached that populous wall of mainstream listeners. It’s easy to imagine them playing smaller venues and completely selling those venues out (which they do on a regular basis), but never hitting it big or stepping up to arena-sized shows (outside of festivals, anyway). And maybe that’s alright — for what it’s worth, Future of the Left seem to be doing damned fine without a million plus Facebook friends, or however popularity among bands is determined these days.
I imagine it’s something like this.
And popularity be damned, because this band is just flat-out good. If you enjoy your music loud, abrasive, smart and clever, you owe it to yourself to check this Welsh band out. After all, where else are you going to hear lines like “I have seen into the future/everyone is slightly older” or song titles as brazen and hilarious as “Robocop 4 – Fuck Off Robocop.” Andy “Falco” Falkous is a truly gifted writer who’s wit is a commodity to rock music that should be celebrated. It’s rare to hear lyricism that either eclipses the music or plays with it on equal terms in modern hard rock, but Future of the Left somehow manage. Combine lines like the one mentioned above (from the excellent “Cosmo’s Ladder”) with buzzsaw guitars, bass that sounds like it’s being smothered with a pillow made of anger, thundering drums and piercing jabs of keyboard/synth, and you’ve got a formula for one of the best bands working today.
You don’t have to take my word for it, though. Stream the new album The Plot Against Common Sense here. If you like it, buy it!
Robo-Suplex 