It tells you something about the state of the modern world when an increasing number of bands are returning to the noble path of using their music to become social commentators. Music has always been used to educate and inform, to rouse the rabble, motivate the masses and even inspire rebellion, something that many bands in the modern age seem to have overlooked. Okay, we don’t need rebellion, but we do need to make people think more about the world we are creating. It’s Karma It’s Cool’s latest song is a welcome addition to that growing conversation.
While firing off such inflammatory material is not really their way, “21st Century Meds” does take a timely sideswipe at modern life and what it takes to get us through it. Be it something as incongruous as booze, porn, or pills, or seemingly more benign hobbies and habits, we are all looking for a crutch to lean on, an escape from reality, our particular soma, as Huxley would have put it.
It’s a darker path than they usually take, but such a subject demands this approach. You add to the mix a video that looks like a cry of warning from the corner of a padded cell, perhaps forewarning us of the endgame we are stumbling into, and you have the perfect audio-visual one-two. Yet even when unraveling the threads of modern society’s dark underbelly, there is something addictive in their raw-edged yet brilliantly accessible rock sonics. It’s almost as if they can’t help but write contagious music.
An addictive song for the subject of addiction? Very clever. And as the first taste of a new album in the works, One Million Suburban Sunsets, discerning music fans may just have found their new fix! I know I have, but you know, I can give up any time I want….
