POSTER CHILDREN
*Grand Bargain!*
(Lotuspool)
The current political-social climate has inspired many artists to add their voices to the din: so enter Poster Children, the darlings of the Champaign-Urbana alternative music scene since the late 1980s. The band has always been socially conscious and now, nearly 15 years since their last album, they prove to be again. In the title track, in the band’s vintage post-punk style, singer Rick Valentin points out, “In the land of the free market and the home of the wage slave / It’s not the robots you need to worry about, it’s the corporate humans.” “World’s Insane” tries to rally hope in the face of confounding events (“We are standing upright in a world turned upside down / We have got to stick together / We have got to stand our ground”). With a slower rocking tempo, “Devil And The Gun” takes a more pessimistic approach (“Find a quiet place for the ones you love / There’s no escape from the devil with the gun”). Valentin’s urgent vocals seem to hit a manic crescendo in “Brand New Country”: “Who are these strangers who let all these heretics in? / Where are the heroes? And where are the true citizens? / I think it’s time this experiment came to an end.” Issues aside, the band is at its musical best when vocal harmonies between Valentin and bassist Rose Marshack are featured, as on “Lucky Ones,” a brooding, pure pop rock track, and on “Hippy Hills,” an upbeat, nostalgic trip to childhood that has the duet singing: “The best years of our lives / I’m going home / The way things never were.”
7/10
Link to print version of this review that appeared in the July 2018 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine. Click the link and navigate to page 32.
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| Poster Children at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, June 29, 2018. |
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