At a local punk rock show last week I picked up hastily selected songs from the impending full length It's a Beautiful Future, a four song disc from Vancouver punks The Rebel Spell. As usual, these samplings from the upcoming new album are powerful, fast, political, catchy, and contain the signature Rebel Spell sound that no other band quite seems to have.
The disc starts off with All we want is to be left alone, a song that seems to be attacking the corporate culture of consumerism and its definitions of self worth based on what you own, how you look, and how well you fit the mold defined by TV and the glossy magazine pages.
The sonorous Uncontrollable brings a new dimension of sound to The Rebel Spell in the way that They Know did on Five Songs About Freedom. In this case, the new sound appears to be a fiddle, and makes for a really awesome sounding track.
Feel the Same is probably the catchiest new track. It's a reminder that you are never alone in fighting oppression, that others around the world are fighting to in numerous ways and against numerous injustices.
Finally, No Thanks, takes on phony liberators of all sorts. It's hard to hear this song without thinking of the occupations of Iraq ("Operation Iraqi Liberation"), and of Afghanistan, where sadly Canadian soldier remain engaged in an unjust, imperialist, aggression under the guise of promoting freedom and democracy.
If these "hastily selected" tracks are representative of The Future is Beautiful then fans of The Rebel Spell have reason to be excited about its impending release. If more of us take up the rallying cries of bands like The Rebel Spell and fight for it, maybe we will have cause to be excited about a future which could be beautiful as well.
Check out The Rebel Spell here.
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