Millencolin – Trew Sounds, ‘Trew Brew’.
Millencolin – Orebro, Sweden.
We’re all about promoting up-and-coming music at Musically Fresh, but, from time-to-time, when a established band “does a music” or a long awaited album surfaces, we step up.
Recently, I found the time to sit down with my copy of Millencolin’s Trew Brew. A highly anticipated album that many have been on the edge of their seats for the eight years since Machine 15. Thirteen tracks of fresh, yet familiar, Skate Punk that could easily have been released in the hey-day of the genre, ten or more years ago.
Except it wasn’t. It’s been released now, in 2015, and it’s everything it wants to be, and that I want it to be. I could ramble on about each track but I’d be here all week…
Start as you mean to go on, ‘Egocentric Man’ firmly cements the band back on solid ground and takes down the egocentric of humanity from the inside. In ‘Chameleon’ the Swede’s talent for hooks produces a helluva lot of sing-a-long potential, with by far one of the best choruses on the release.
‘C-3PO’s no different than me, I’ve been well programmed by society to consume my identity. A rat racer who’s never looking back, but likes the back seat, where you never have to take responsibility’ – ‘Autopilot Mode’
The band’s lyrics have always been down to earth, the point has always stood there staring at you with no pretension. Tracks four, five and six are shining examples.
Four. ‘Bring Me Home’ has some of the best verses and chorus from the entire album, and is a trew anthem to comradeship. While Five – ‘Sense & Sensibility’, is easily up there with my favourite tracks of the year, bashing hatred and addressing the anger we try to hold in when it is spouted amongst us. – ‘You’re just a racist clown to me’ .
‘Trew Brew’ hits us for six much like the previous two in its anthemic glory –
‘I don’t wanna live my life just pretending what I’m not, I just wanna spend my life living my life on the spot […] I don’t care if its good enough for you, I just wanna create something true’
‘It’s a spell, it’s a joke, it’s a trick played by your brain. It’s the models sickly pale. It’s a pointless twice-told tale’ – ‘Perfection Is Boring’
‘Wall Of Doubt’ has the chorus’ of the band’s rockier material and the speed of their signature Skate Punk melodies all perfectly rolled into one with honesty and reality. ‘Something I Would Die’ follows suit but is a more mellow, fitting in with the sound post-Pennybridge Pioneers.
‘Silent Suicide’ is a Punk-Rock song and that is best description I shall offer, while ‘Man Of A 1000 Tics’ has some of the best guitar melodies of the album and a chorus to match.
‘A tragedy, condition and disease. He’s got tricks about denial up his sleeve. That’s why they call him Mr. Fake Believe’ – Mr. Fake Believe
Modern society is questionable at best; decency, love, rational thought, friendships – the list goes on, they have all suffered. ‘Believe In John’ is an upbeat song of hope against the bleak nature of contemporary existence.
‘John Lennon said it’s all you need, in theory, it’s hard not to agree […] We need to some around, before the world gets too upside down… so lets come around’
There we have it, the first studio album by Sweden veterans Millencolin in eight long years, and what an album it is. Easily on track for the best of the year by our thoughts and likely many others.
#StayFresh
