The Shape of Punk to Come sucks
» Your favorite album is at best a really good nu-metal album that you will defend to the death because you're a sentimental bastard.
Refused, The Shape of Punk to Come
I'm not ashamed to admit that I liked mid to late 90s hardcore in high school during the mid to late 90s. Despair, early Integrity, Unbroken, etc. That's good shit I won't hate on for a second. In fact, if you are in my age group (25-30-ish), and you feel the need to talk badly about this stuff, I'll probably lump you under one of these three categories:
1. You never had any cool hardcore friends. You probably were under the (correct) assumption that most hardcore was fucking terrible and by default, so were the people that listened to the music.
2. You're a total pussy. Sorry.
3. You're a liar and you sold all your hardcore records on eBay as soon as you started art school.
That's really it. Aside from a few friends who are brave enough to admit that they were Phishheads in their past life, I'd feel comfortable guesstimating that 75% of my associates with any sort of "punk training" in their formative years had some positive exposure to hardcore.
One way to get somebody to fess up is to bring up The Shape of Punk to Come by Refused. Nine times out of ten the person you are talking to will end up pissing themselves all over that album, possibly using terms like "game changing", "revolutionary", or even better: "Second coming of Nation of Ulysses".
I'm here to tell you that if they say any of those things, please feel free to tell them to shut the fuck up. The Shape of Punk to Come (T.S.o.P.t.C. henceforth) is the single most overrated album to come out in the late 90s. You know what T.S.o.P.t.C. really is? It's a bad attempt at combining Born Against and N.o.U with a bunch of techno music thrown in -- that upon any listen today, seems incredibly dated -- and it's perpetrated by a bunch of Swedes with government art grants and books on Situationist International.
And while it doesn't have anything to do with the album in question per se, lead singer Dennis Lyxzén's post-Refused project, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, exposed him as nothing but an Ian Svenonious wanna-be. All posturing and no product. If Refused was an attempt at being Nation of Ulysses, The (International) Noise Conspiracy was a pathetic attempt at pinching some magic from The Make Up. Where does the whole scam get uncovered? Unlike everything Svenonious has ever put out (in terms of music), all of Lyxzén's "seminal" work was issued on what we might as well go ahead and call a major label, Epitaph. I don't want to pull the "what's punk and what's not card", but to me, this fact helps to further debunk the legacy of T.S.o.P.t.C., and pretty much the entire Refused/Lyxzén catalog as a bunch of crap we'd already heard before, but by people who did it better and had more integrity.
Sorry to burst your bubble. I know you thought you were really part of something special with this one. Maybe you can rest easy knowing that at their best, Refused were simply a thinking persons Rage Against the Machine, and that right now, somewhere in Ohio, a bunch of Juggalos are wigging out to this song and thinking "man, if only this band didn't break up, they could totally play the Gathering next year."
Yeh, sorry. Your favorite record that is going to be given the "deluxe reissue" treatment on Epitaph in June is at best nothing but a really good nu-metal album that you will defend to the death because you're a sentimental bastard and you need to fight for what's right.
Posted on April 08, 2010. More on: brooklyn hater, refused, hardcore
learn you idiot!
— dd on April 27, 2010
learn you idiot!
— dd on April 20, 2010
...excuse me while I *yawn* So you're an ageing scene kid with some teen angst left in you. Cool. And I'm sure in 20 years time you'll still be jizzing over your Born Against collection whilst people are getting on with more productive things. Elitism and music. Gotta love it.
— Jon on April 15, 2010
Why is everything a who-dun-it first competition???? No fun my babe no fun... For the record I like Nation of Ulysses, Born Against, AND REFUSED.
— Max on April 14, 2010
All you trust fund Brooklyn hipsters bailed hardcore the minute you all turned 21 and drank PBR at your first dive bar. Hardcore is still alive and well without you keffiyeh wearing, fixed-gear riding, douchbags polluting the scene. Kill yourselves now and bring back the cultural vitality that Williamsburg used to have before you apathetic fucks started stinking up the place
— B on April 14, 2010
that is awesome i never understood why people used to say to me i thought you were a hardcore kid and you dont know who the refused is. then i heard them and thought this is why i dont.
— brett Frost on April 14, 2010
Who's Refused? Who cares? Punk died after '84 so why even bother with reviews like this. Everything after was just rehashs of the original music. Look at Crossed Out. Love Dallas but even he said that the music was throw back to Boston hardcore ala' 78.
— John Goff on April 14, 2010
So true. I especially hate that people love to credit this album as "mixing hardcore with jazz" because they made the album look like a blue note cover and threw fake ornette samples between songs. It's especially hilarious since there were bands like Iceburn who really WERE combining jazz and punk but getting no credit for it because they weren't wearing white belts when they did it.
— Jay of Today on April 14, 2010
TSoPtC was great when it first came out, and has withstood the test of time on multiple repeated listenings over MANY years. I can only assume this article was written with tongue in cheek (or dick in mouth). The music of TSoPtC has nothing to do with Epitaph as a label (who licensed it), Dennis Lyxen future projects, sounding like Born Against (because they're fucking dead? B.A are more sloppy punk hc) or Nation of U (ie the sound of jazz to come vs the shape of punk to come? i have to say, they DO compare somewhat, esp The Kingdom of Heaven Must Be, but NoU are kinda sloppy HC as well). However TSoPtC is a stand-alone bombastic disc the whole way thru, recorded extremely well... it's sharp, crisp and attacks on every level, and has a way-cool cover I've never grown tired of. Actually saying Refuse were a thinking person's RATM is the most intelligent thing you said. I also agree with the fact that I'm a sentimental bastard who needs to fight for what's right and fucking great. Who cares if Epitaph put out other great music, or they're re-releasing this amazing disc? It only goes to show they want folks to hear something they may have missed first time around. Any way you look at it, thanks for writing the article.
— Bruce Jackson on April 14, 2010
While I agree with most of what you said, I can't deny that 'New Noise' is a good song. It's one of those rare gems that squeaked past the suck to become a single in a decade full of sad, shitty mainstream music. I also understand the need to be the first person to trash a beloved band to become king of the apatheologists. It helps you to cover the fact that you probably once worshiped them and then one day saw a fat kid in eyeliner wearing a Refused shirt. I also know you've enjoyed reading my comments as much as I've enjoyed reading yours.
— David Balderdash on April 14, 2010
You're so cool dude.
— 52 Ex on April 14, 2010
To me, The Shape of Punk to Come is an unfortunate warning sign. Since Refused broke up we have seen a ton of garbage emo bands masqurading under the heading of hardcore or post-hardcore. That being said, The Shape is an alright record. Sure, it rips off some other bands but I think as a gateway drug of sorts to hardcore, maybe it isn't so bad. I think eventually you recognize the faults of this record and move on just like you do with many other bands/records.
— Pierce on April 13, 2010
You're making fun of the album that got me and all my friends into hardcore.
— Here's Waldo on April 09, 2010
Ha, I remember years ago (early college or late high school), I came across an All Music Guide had a bio for either Refused or Born Against where they unrepentantly ripped into the former for mercilessly ripping off the latter. Makes sense in the long run...The Shape Of Punk To Come does not hold up for me at all, but at least that bio made me seek out Born Against. I have to agree on the nu-metal undertones (overtones?). Even when I dug The Shape... when I was younger, it did have the disturbing mall-goth polish. Gross. I definitely think it's necessary to take The Shape... down a few pegs as it seems that the considerably better bands that Refused blatantly cribbed from don't get nearly the same mass of ecstatic reverence. Seriously folks, Nine Patriotic Hymns For Children and Plays Pretty For Baby SMOKE this record. REAL classics those are.
— Paul on April 09, 2010
Hit the nail on the head! Came around to The Shape... in high school. Nu-metal undertones (overtones?) always bugged me, but I got into it at some point. These days, it doesn't hold up AT ALL. Blatant cribbing of Born Against's musical blueprints, NOU's jazz-kitsch interludes/art aesthetic, and some misguided and unnecessary "electronica" dabbling a few years too late (like we needed another Freak*On*Ica). Seriously folks, Nine Patriotic Hymns For Children and Plays Pretty For Baby SMOKE this record, and you'll be listening to both of those for a long, long while.
— Paul on April 09, 2010
Why so much hate? What do you think about TEXT or AC4? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEXT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC4
— Erik on April 09, 2010
i like this album, but i don't really like hxc, but had some hxc friends---i was the pop punk kid, therefore i was okay with this album. not that i've listened to it in awhile, which may cloud the memory bank.
— josh on April 09, 2010
This is all gospel. Call out the crap, let the cream rise!
— Kevin on April 08, 2010
this piece was pretty funny. jason failed to mention the jazz interludes on that record ("its sooo experimental" i remember a friend telling me, "xylophone, now that's HC"), the fact that refused broke up after their first US tour because they thought they were going to be huge but no one actually gave two shits about them (opinion, yes, but tell me otherwise)(and people would love them after they broke up, but everything is prettier in hindsight, when the people and the music are completely seperate) and, perhaps the most crucial bit i felt was lacking from this piece is how slutty and insulting refused was in liscensing their songs out post-break up. they were fucking in "any given sunday" for crying out loud. but all in all, jason was very right and this article was a fun, funny read. and to that first commenter, i really don't follow you. (especially that last remark about DBA...and that bold comment about todays scene mirroring the 90s HC era - if cassettes, zines, lit and comic fairs, your other examples etc. stood for one time, that would be pretty fucking sad dude - at least get more specific in your arguements - and maybe follow one line of thinking, instead of meandering through ideas without ever making any points). wait, what? oh yeah. sweet.
— mike sheffield on April 08, 2010
Not exactly Always Right. The oranges to blood orange sorbet is your opinion; the opinion that Refused (and the album in question) sucks is mine. I don't think Refused and Unbroken (more specifically "Life. Love. Regret") sound that much alike at all, but again, these are arbitrary debates and there is little to no point in arguing. As for the Epitaph in the 90'ss/kids "growing up" in Brooklyn today (many of which are college age or older), I don't see what you're getting at. If I remember correctly, Epitaph was more the Bowery Presents of it's time i.e. punk, indie, etc. as big business. If I were to come out and say something like this about Ebullition Records or a band like Los Crudos, then you would have a valid point. As for the great bands Epitaph was putting out: sure, New Bomb Turks were a fantastic band. Listening to their stuff now, I'd prefer their stuff on Crypt, but whatever. I won't argue that major labels put out good music all the time, but at least they don't go masquerading as "indie" labels like Epitaph does. (As well as the labels they "licensed")
— Jason Diamond on April 08, 2010
So, by your own admission hardcore had some missteps in the '90's and yet a record that still finds converts 12 years on is total crap? I respect your opinion, but I can't get behind that. What's wrong with getting a government art grant as long as at it's used to produce, at the very least a decent record; which, Shape of Punk to Come, certainly is. Stop hating on Refused because you hate (International) Noise Conspiracy. I hate that shit too, nowhere near as good as anything Refused put out, plus if you hate (I).N.C wait till you see what Dennis new band sounds like. Still not Refused, still not as good. P.S. - Unwound, Universal Order of Armageddon and the like are all great bands...still not Refused.
— Chest Rockwell on April 08, 2010
First things first, you start by saying Unbroken is awesome then say this album sucks. That's like saying I think oranges are awesome, but blood orange sorbet sucks. Secondly, I saw this band live and they were amazing. Yes, Denis did end up becoming a cheesey capitalist, but that record is just great musically--mostly because of it's production. Not only did it change the sound of heavy music for the next 5 years, it would still sound new today--something extremely rare for a 90s record and the proof of a great record. Thirdly, all of their records were put out by Burning Heart, Epitaph only licensed them. Not to mention, you're talking about a time Epitaph was putting out records by great bands like the New Bomb Turks and Choking Victim. And lastly, this would be a great debate topic, especially since today's diy scene mirrors so closely to the 90s HC era (cassettes, zines, lit and comic fairs, diy shows in churches, basements, etc.). So by your logic, all kids growing up in brooklyn today will look back on their Death By Audio days as mostly crap.
— Always Right on April 08, 2010