This review is part of a series looking back at significant albums on their anniversaries. Through the benefit of hindsight we will be viewing the album not just as it was released, but how it stands the test of time, as well as its place in the band’s discography and the genre in general.
Fat Wreck Chords – 24 April 2001
Hasn’t aged a bit
I change my mind a lot about Anti-Flag. I was a huge fan from age 13-16 or so, and some would say that that’s exactly Anti-Flag’s target audience. The folks in the band are really smart, but their songs are not that nuanced. They’re kind of designed with the aim of getting young people interested in politics. I’ll think about all of this, and then I’ll listen to the band and remember how damn good they are. My real thesis statement about Anti-Flag is that they’re a perfect band for teenagers with a political bent, but that doesn’t diminish their talent, relevance, or importance at all; and they’re still a great band even if you’ve aged out a little bit.
1999’s New Kind Of Army wasn’t exactly a breakthrough album commercially, but it’s when Anti-Flag really solidified their sound. It’s their first album with the lineup that they’ve had since, and it marks a real departure in their approach to songwriting from Die For The Government and Their System Doesn’t Work For You. Underground Network (out twenty years ago today) Mobilize are real transition albums for the band, leading up to their actual breakthrough, The Terror State.
Underground Network feels like an outlier in their discography, but a really strong outlier. Everything I said earlier about the lack of nuance in some of their lyrics is not really present on this one. There are a few songs that are quite specific in their subjects (“The Panama Deception” and “Vieques, Puerto Rico: Bikini Revisited”). A lot of the songs are more complex than previous material. To be sure, the music didn’t get “dumbed down” down after Underground Network, but a lot of their later success is at least in part due to a more straightforward style of songwriting.
I love just about every track on Underground Network but when I listen to it from front to back it starts to drag – I think a lot of this has to do with so many songs starting with bass. There must have been a few songs that they couldn’t decide how to start, and a quick bass intro was the solution. This coincides with Chris #2 starting to make an appearance as a vocalist (which is a good addition and solves problems if you find Justin Sane’s voice grating), so maybe this is a sign of his growing influence on the band. The track sequencing doesn’t always make a lot of sense (I have the same issue with The Moon And Antarctica by Modest Mouse), and it makes the album not as fun to listen front to back as some of their albums, even if the majority of the individual songs are fantastic. We also get to hear the band get a little more experimental than they had been before, or have been since. There’s some really surprising percussion sprinkled throughout the record. There are some guitar lines, especially on “Culture Revolution,” that are almost nu-metal. This is two years after The Matrix came out!
I get that “Spaz’s House Destruction Party” is something of a classic in the Anti-Flag fandom but I’ve really never liked that song. I don’t think bands always have to be serious but Anti-Flag is particularly not great at humor. I think the band maybe agreed with me too because this seems like the last time they make a real attempt at a lighter song. Of course all their material after this has an urgency associated with 9/11 and the ensuing conflict in the Middle East, but you can chart a progression in tone across their first four albums. Underground Network also marks the first time Anti-Flag starts including essays with the album. Anti-Flag turned me onto Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Cornel West (who I ate french fries next to in a diner once – he’s a good tipper).
What really stands out to me about Underground Network 20 years later (I’m writing this as if I heard it when it came out…I was eight) is how urgent and fresh it still sounds. This is true of a lot of their material, and speaks to the way that Anti-Flag has been able to address topics in a non-specific way. It’s why teenagers can listen to “Die For The Government” or “Until It Happens To You” and know it’s exactly what it’s about, but are probably scratching their heads a bit when they hear Against Me sing about Condoleezza Rice. It would be an exaggeration to call Anti-Flag particularly prophetic, but it is real interesting to think about how some of the topics covered in Underground Network (like addressing that the United States is built on the genocide of indigenous people, or the web that links lobbyists to arms manufacturers to the greater military industrial complex) were approached in a pre 9/11 landscape as, “maybe this band should chill out.” But in 2021 these are frequent discussions had across the leftist community. If nothing else, we have to give Anti-Flag props for sticking to their guns for the past two decades.
Final thoughts: Anti-Flag is great! I haven’t been in love with their past few albums but I’m also not convinced that they’re really for me. Underground Network has a weird place in their discography. I really look at it, along with Mobilize, as a transitioning album for them. It’s not my favorite Anti-Flag album but I like almost every song on it. That being said, Underground Network is still more than an album that’s only interesting to listen to so you can see where the band came from. It’s really good. It’s well produced, the songwriting is great, and it holds its own against anything else the band has put out since.
Musician and writer – I play in Cheap City and run Dollhouse Lightning
