REVIEW: Faintest Idea's "The Road to Sedition"
The Road to Sedition is the fourth album by King’s Lynn, UK’s ska punk rockers Faintest Idea. I haven’t been very familiar with Faintest Idea up until now and as of this review haven’t had a chance to revisit any old material so anything I state is without any prior context, which I feel may be important for my concluding feelings.
Sedition opens with “The Machine Stops,” which serves more so as a demonstration of what Faintest Idea is sonically, with the only “lyrics” being hype ups and call outs to a crowd. I actually enjoy this as an introduction as, with any band in the genre, Faintest Idea have quite a lot to say about the state of the world around them and having an ease into what you should expect going forward makes for a nice touch overall. At the tailend of the track we’re hit with an old sample that, while I can’t find the source for, presents one of my favorite aspects of Sedition as a record; those samples and the way they’re utilized. Faintest Idea doesn’t just give you a socially charged cut from some broadcasted speech and hard cut into their song, they give you it with their brand of ska and punk written around it, making it just as vital as any other part of the track. I have to wonder how exactly that plays out live.
Other highlights include “Nose Dive,” which features Kent’s Riskee & The Ridicule. The verse that vocalist Scott Picking raps out makes the song stick out among the others alone. That and the closer; “The End of ‘The End of History’” is a triumphant and grandiose outro to the record even if I could do with it being cut by one or two of the songs closing group chants.
Faintest Idea proves, over and over again, that they’re good at writing a ska punk song with exciting, trombone led, circle pit bits and overall punk energy. However, where the record starts to fall apart for me is that while those parts are all sort of one trick used over and over again, in fact that’s what a lot of this record feels like. At the end of this record I know who Faintest Idea are socially and even admire them and stand with them. I know who they are sonically and enjoy that quite a bit. What I’d like to see is Faintest Idea elevating that creative process and showing maybe a bit more diversity, even within the genres and spaces they play in. Still, I suppose I’m not totally knowledgeable of the band’s history or scene and this record does come stamped with higher praise from our producer than me, so it could be better than even I currently interpret.
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