Punk Planet
Douglas Heaven checks out Refused
There’s nothing more hardcore punk than having a creed to live by. The straight-edge subculture – an abstention from drugs, promiscuous sex, and often hair – was a creed of sorts, inspired by the anti-hedonistic stance of 1980s bands such as Minor Threat, and many bands have adopted the stance of political revolutionaries.
But Refused (1991-1998), a hardcore punk band from Sweden, wrote manifestos. A typical liner note proclaims “the art produced by Refused is a weapon in the service of the struggle and an inseparable part of it”.
Their final press release, announcing their split, begins: “Just like the political theorists and philosophers...we also managed with a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. A manifestation of an idea to a concrete action”. But they believed in their own pretensions, they backed every word of their cod-theoretical cant with an intensity of songwriting and performance that made you believe it too. Refused started out on This Just Might Be The Truth (1994) as a good European version of The Nation of Ulysses. Like their American counterparts, theirs was a punk that had roots in the protest song: Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent (1996) which took its name from a 1909 songbook from the Industrial Workers of the World.
But it is for The Shape of Punk to Come (1998) that they truly matter. A few years ago Kerrang! ranked this album at #13 on their “50 Most Influential Albums of All Time”. Yeah, who cares about Kerrang! and who cares about lists? Few people noticed The Shape of Punk to Come when it came out – it lives instead, as it’s title proclaimed it would, in the hardcore scene of today.
Refused songs are full of complex rhythms and stomach-lurching dynamics. In The Shape of Punk to Come they also play around with electronica and jazz and the kind of studio production that normally kills a band of this persuasion. Here it’s done so artfully, fitted so well to the songs, and without loss of intensity, that it lifts this record atmospheres above the angry, shouty street-punk kids they’d grown from.
But most importantly, Refused could write pop hooks worthy of ABBA. Take ‘Summer Holidays vs Punk Routine’ from their last album: sandwiched between churning guitars, you’re hit by a euphoric rush more uplifting than anything you’ll find in Ibiza.
Refused broke up in 1998, bitter, disenchanted, and tired. True to their grounded roots, they played their last show in the basement of a friend’s house. When the police raided the party and shut the band down, they saw it as a liberation.
A few mp3s can downloaded from www.burningheart.com/refused/index.html but you should buy The Shape of Punk to Come immediately.
