There was a question put to by an Australian reviewer whether Ian Svenonious, the brain behind Chain and the Gang is “taking a piss or whether he’s operating on some higher and greater plane than the rest of us”. Knowing him from not only the previous C&G albums but from his legendary Dischord band Nation of Ulysses, I can freely say that there is no dilemma. He is both taking a piss and operating on a higher plane. The Best of Crime Rock, the band’s latest album, just goes on to prove it.
Musically, Svenonious and the band operate on a plane usually best populated by the likes of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Nick Cave in his non-melancholy mood. Basically puncher version of soul, r&b, and blues. But for Svenonious that is the medium, and himself and the band have got it down to pat. The key, though is the message. Svenonious likes to discuss, everything and anything dealing with current social circumstances (What Is A Dollar?) to politics in general (Free Will) to international conspiracies (Deathbed Confession). But unlike some other musicians who do it with a somewhat simplistic wide-eyed fascination, Svenonious gets down and researches and studies and then turns his opinions into loud, brazen, (i.e. great) rock (for example, Mum Is The Word). And then he keeps on explaining himself by writing books or publishing articles to make sure you get the message.
What is even more fascinating about this album is that he presents it as a “greatest hits” affair, by re-working songs he thinks we should all have paid more attention when they first came out on the previous four Chain and the Gang albums. In the end, it actually turns into an album of new material which sounds even fresher and relevant that when it first came out, an extremely hard achievement in itself.
Do you want to fault this album? Please be free to do so if you can. I couldn’t, so in the words of Svenonious, the man himself - Come Over.
