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.
Dischord – 16 Oct 2001
A fitting cap (?) to one of the most influential bands in punk?
Is there any other band that looms as large in punk rock – even at its most niche – as Fugazi? I’m honestly not sure. As a massive superfan of the band, it’s often hard not to read their influence into the things I listen to, but objectively speaking, so few major punk bands haven’t cited Fugazi – or at least Ian Mackaye – as some sort of influence. And if our recent collaborative review of the massive two CD Fugazi tribute compilation is any indication, twenty years on from their final album, The Argument, Fugazi continues to inspire a broad range of bands.
I’m going to avoid a long contextual set up of this album – there have certainly been many articles written about Fugazi’s ethical standards, business practices, long and partially improvised live shows – the list goes on. Suffice it to say that in 2001 few bands had continued to capture the imagination of punk music at large as much as Fugazi. More than anything, their music seemed to say that anything and everything is possible with the right motivation.
The Argument came out three years after 1998’s End Hits – an album that prompted some fans to speculate that the band might be calling it quits. They may have been right too – End Hits was followed by the (utterly fantastic) Instrument documentary, and a relative decrease in touring. To be fair, they were still touring quite a bit, but compared to the early and mid 90’s, not quite as much. More so, End Hits seemed like such a great way to cap off the catalog. It seemed to reconcile all the disparate elements of their music making: Groove based angular jams, endlessly catchy anthems, breakneck hardcore, and avant-garde experimentation. What else did they really have to say after making such a great album? I think the band was asking the same question, given that the gap between End Hits and The Argument is the longest they had taken. It also sticks out that The Argument finds the band returning to old material. The Furniture EP – released right before The Argument has a title track that the band had been playing live since their literal first show, but had never recorded before. That seemed to be the right choice because the live versions of “Furniture” (check out the massive Fugazi Live Archive) never really seem to land well until later in their career. Further, the band has mentioned that “Epic Problem” was based on a song idea that they had been working on for most of their career, and could never quite figure out how to finish the song.
Every song on The Argument is great. It’s a collection of work that doesn’t just get better with time, but seems to reveal new secrets on each repeat listen. Even “Intro” acts an overture for the album – a noisy instrumental bit that succeeds far more than the same experiments did on Red Medicine. It foreshadows the introduction of the cello in the following “Cashout” and almost makes the album cyclical by reappearing at the beginning of the final track. “Cashout,” “Full Discclosure,” and “Epic Problem” follow the model the band established on In On The Kill Taker, to open each album with a “one two punch” (or in this case one two three?) of the most energetic songs, before taking us to more experimental or abstract lands.
Percussionist Jerry Busher is all over the album, not just as a second drummer copying Brendan Canty’s parts, but really complementing and helping the band to build a sonic world. The double drumset effect works extremely well at the beginning of “Ex-spectator,” a song that somehow has a 40 second drum intro that could be twice as long and be just as thrilling. The band in general is absolutely at their tightest. The guitar work between Ian Mackaye and Guy Picciotto is inventive and unique, but the powerhouse rhythm section of Canty and Joe Lally is unmatched. The main groove of songs like “The Kill” are tight and catchy, and it always jumps out at me that Fugazi honestly has a lot of songs that start or are structured the same way, but never feel repetitive.
And of course the political implications of the album have to be noted at least a little. Released just a month after 9/11, although it certainly would have been finished and at the pressing plant long before then, the album feels prescient in its supposed prediction and analysis of the future of American culture and politics – particularly through the lense of imperialism. “Cashout” refers to the housing crisis, a problem that is not going to get better any time soon if the pandemic has been any indication. “The Kill” is a direct indictment of the military industrial complex, particularly as it relates to patriotism and privilege. 9/11 is an event that solidifies the growing trends in America in the late 90’s – Fugazi was merely reading the writing on the wall.
The Argument is a must listen – for fans of punk music at large but it should be approached and studied by fans of all musical genres (my music students have all had to listen to at least a few Fugazi songs in their time studying with me). I think this is true of all of Fugazi’s music, but it only gets better with age. The musical ideas are unmatched by any band at the time and since, and lyrically and politically The Argument is fascinating as a work that abstractly defines the political moment.
Musician and writer – I play in Cheap City and run Dollhouse Lightning
