Stockholm Syndrome – Fishbone (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Referencing the term for when a captive starts sympathizing with their captors, Fishbone‘s first full album in twenty years is an uncompromising and unflinching assessment of the political winds and populist powers at work in America today. (Although their observations are applicable the world over.)

For over 40 years, Fishbone has been a sonic barometer, reflecting the pressure building in society. While they have never been short of points to raise and subject matter to choose from, Stockholm Syndrome feels like their most direct and confrontational work to date. Surely a sign of the times.

If their recent singles “Last Call in America” and “Racist Piece of Shit” have confronted the fracturing, and perhaps the beginning of the end of America as we know it, and the president many see driving its demise, and done so to high octane blends of funky-punk and rock and soul, there is sonically much more to be found on the album.

“Secret Police” is initially based on a more ambient sound, driven by tribal drums and shimmering shards of guitar, a slow-burning song slowly rising to anthemic proportions as the band discusses those who take the law into their own hands. “Why Do We Keep on Dying” adopts a more traditional ska-driven sound to pose this most basic question, and “Love is Love” concludes the album with a glimmer of hope and a heavenly soul ballad.

It is an album that is built on both timeless issues and timely urgency. And if you are asking yourself why Fishbone is writing songs that raise the same old questions, you should really be asking yourself why they feel the need to.