Yank Crime

FUCK YES.
I had no idea this was a thing. I love Rocket From The Crypt, I love At The Drive-In, and this is exactly halfway 'twixt the two. Guttural screaming and chaotic guitars. Enough energy to fuel a mission to Jupiter.
Another reason to love the 1001 Albums project.

Very long songs, not super enjoyable, but ok. Not something I needed before dying.

The early 90's beginnings of scremo. Kinda like Fugazi. Punk/noise rock. 1hr 9mins is far too long for a post hardcore punk album. I mean, it's pretty solid, but so much thrashing and yelling. I had to keep taking breaks throughout this album because I would find myself losing interest. Some songs are 9 mins long.... 9 mins of abusing musical instruments and screaming about it.

Favourite songs: Golden Brown, Bullet Train to Vegas, Here Come the Rome Plows, Human Interest

Least favourite songs: New Intro

3/5

Now That's What I Call... Post-Hardcore Punk '94!

For this review, I will look at the original tracklisting and not include the bonus tracks with the 2003 re-release.

I had not heard of Drive Like Jehu before today. They seem to have been a short-lived post-hardcore punk band from the 90s that released only two albums, with Yank Crime being the second.

Listening to it, I was blasted away by the melodic guitar hooks, Mark Trombino's pounding percussion, and Rick Froberg's commanding vocal style. Adding to that experience were odd time signatures and more complex rhythmic structures akin to math rock. Then you get into the lyrics, and Rick gets visceral in his writing as topics range from fractured relationships on "Sinews" and "Do You Compute?" to self-destruction on "Golden Brown" to ecological disasters on "Here Come the Rome Plows" and "Luau". There's a great deal of poignant angst that comes across in the words and the sonic noise that carries them.

I get that this abrasive style of music is not for everyone, but Drive Like Jehu delivered in spades within the short time they had together. It's apparent how later acts like At the Drive-In and Deftones took note of these guys. Give it a spin.

Quite annoying dissonances in all the songs. Does not sound nice at all

Apparently this is a post-punk album. Which I guess means it sounds like punk but is less fun.
Quite the chore to stick it out for the whole album. Not a fan of scream singing. Even when I’m occasion there works be some instrumental melody, it would eventually evolve into the screaming again. And the air siren was just freaking mean.
According to Wikipedia the band “quietly disbanded” after making this album. Not sure if that is code for “slunk away to find day jobs”.

Bad. Bad. Bad

Offensive guitar screeches and noises that didn't sound good together. And then a random 10 seconds of good riffs and back to noise

2 ⭐️

Fantastic album from Drive Like Jehu. It's a great post-hardcore record full of passion, energy, intensity, and incredible noise. It brings together a perfect balance of hardcore, punk, no-wave, and post-rock where the quieter parts are a bit Slint-like and the hard energetic parts are very reminiscent of Fugazi from the same era.

No wonder this is slowly starting to gain a justified reputation as an overlooked masterpiece of its time.

When the first song hit, I honestly thought I wasn’t in the mood for this album today. However, I was quickly won over by the sheer complexity of “Yank Crime.” It’s an album that grabs you and refuses to let go.

The levels of aggression and intricacy in this album are remarkable. It’s like a rollercoaster ride through a musical maze. The influence it had on emo music in the 2000s is evident, but unlike the emo we all got tired of, “Yank Crime” feels fresh and invigorating.

In some ways, it reminds me of Slint’s “Spiderland.” Both albums keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering what unexpected turn the music will take next. Drive Like Jehu’s raw energy and unconventional song structures make this album a standout in the post-hardcore genre.

My only gripe is it’s just too long and you do feel exhausted by the end, 4 stars.

Cool plade, godt med støj.

Iconic post-punk band. These guys definitely majorly influenced a TON of music I adore so I have so much respect for them. They don't suffer from the "Seinfeld is unfunny" syndrome either, this album absolutely rips.

This is a cool history piece for me, seeing how other scenes were sounding in this time frame. I don't know that I would come back to this but I am glad to find it.

Pre-listening: I think I listened to this a year or two ago while compiling an “early emo” playlist. One song (only), Luau, made the playlist. That doesn’t bode well.

After listening: yeah, don’t care for this. The first album where no songs will make my ongoing playlist.

FUCK. YES. This is exactly the type of longform, noisy shit that I love when Sonic Youth does it, and this shit rocks hard! Whatever the singer is usually inaudible, and quite frankly, indistinguishable from the rest of the noise, but I hardly care, because this rocks so hard that I'm jamming harder than most albums have ever had me jamming before. I could perhaps understand this being annoying, but I'm too busy loving this to care, even if it is a little longwinded. If this is the closest we get to emo on the whole generator then sign me up to finding more noise rock like this. Fuck yeah!

Can I really be giving an album I've never heard of before a 5? I think I am. Maybe it's just because I've been in a rut of fairly "meh" albums for the past couple of weeks, but this one sort of blew my socks off.

Driving, crunchy, loud guitars that change mid song, vocals just short of a hardcore scream but still very interesting.

I really liked it. Maybe my favorite "new to me" album since starting this project.

Ze doen het er een beetje om. Zo irritant mogelijk muziek maken. Een beetje vals mag best en waarom zingen als je schreeuwen kan? Prima hoor. Lekker doen. Ieder zijn hobby.

More into this for the math rock parts than the emo.

Energiaa on, mutta ehkä mun plebeijikorva ei löydä kauheesti uutta sen pauhaamisen takaa. 2/5

Really not good at all. Songs way to long. Couldn’t get into it. 1/5