Refused - REV001
Can I talk about Refused for a second? First, this particular song absolutely is a funk punk song, the guitar riff is written like a funk horn riff, and the drumbeat is a basic funk back beat. It's not actually funky, but it's written as if it should be. I can't hear the bass guitar, which isn't funky, but the bassline probably isn't funky anyway, so that is both a good thing and not funky. But overall this particular song is an attempt at a kind of funky hardcore.
Second of all, it's just my opinion, but I don't know how The Shape Of Punk To Come is such a fluke. That record is amazing, and yes dripping with absurdity and pretention (and irony as time goes on and on), but musically it is killer. I think? I don't really like anything they did before that record, although I'll admit it is relatively competent 90s sXe hardcore. Everything that I've heard after that record (I haven't listened to everything, but I've listened to a fair amount) is just trying to recapture TSOPTC magic and failing miserably. To the point that now I have to second-guess whether or not that album is actually as good (musically) as I think it is, or did it just hit me at the perfect moment in my youth.
Anyway, Refused is not funk punk, but this song is trying to be. So I get to spew my opinion here. Rant over.






















