Who better to tell us how fucked up life is than a bunch of junkies? Flipper were done with the speed and energy of the original punk bands. Like a heroin high they wanted their sound to be slowwww, and The Melvins, My War era Black Flag, Nirvana, ext.... all thank them for it.
Guitarist Ted Falconi barely plays a normal chord in the entire album. Most of it is just noisy feedback over Bruce Loose/Will Shatter's repetitive, fuzzed-out bass lines, and Steve DePace's slow drum rhythms. The sound is the perfect backdrop for their extremely bleak and hopeless yet honest lyrics.
Sex Bomb is probably the most famous song here and for the most part it's Loose screaming "Sex bomb baby, yeah!" over a fuzzy bassline, a saxophone, and noisy guitars for 7 minutes. It's enjoyable as fuck, but the true highlight here is "Life is Cheap". Musically it's similar to the others but Loose applies a harmonizing effect on his voice so it sounds as if two people were singing the song, a normal voice and screechy high pitched rat. It's such a bleak sound. He compliments it with lyrics like these:
"People cling to things to make to make their lives seem real
Crawling like bugs at some fool leader’s heels
Boasting of freedom when they’re tied down with chains
It’s time to give it up. here comes the death rain."
One of my favorite songs ever.
Flipper Still Rules OK!
this is the real thing
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