Anti-Flag: The Bright Lights Of America : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Pittsburgh punks Anti-Flag have long proclaimed their leftist outrage on their albums, and they act on their convictions too: The band's press bio lists ten different organizations its members have worked with, from Amnesty International to PETA. Unfortunately, The Bright Lights of America, Anti-Flag's second major-label album and eighth overall, proves for the billionth time that good intentions don't always make good music. With producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie) giving the songs clarion boldness, Bright Lights jumps between arena punk with shout-along choruses ("The Modern Rome Burning") and leaner, meaner barnburners ("Spit in the Face"). But the problem lies more with the songs than the sound: Only a handful of tracks rise above run-of-the-mill thrashing to mosh-worthy adequacy. Lyrically, the album tends toward unspecific invective against abuses of power, as well as vague pondering about the "fine line between genius and obscenity." Too bad: If Anti-Flag had trained their potent attack on some better material, they might have come up with some muckraking you could really get behind.