Anti-Flag: The Bright Lights Of America

There's a point in "Good And Ready"—the

opening track of Anti-Flag's ambitious new The Bright Lights Of America—where a disembodied

xylophone begins to ping in the background. Then bells start to peal. Within a

matter of seconds, a choir of little kiddies chimes in. And just as quickly,

they're gone—leaving a limp, rote punk song in their wake. Raise that to

the power of tubular bells, cellos, brass, timpani, and glockenspiel, and

you've got an idea of how severely Bright Lights' formula flounders. Too

much of the disc, like the histrionic "The Modern Rome Burning," swipes

singsong, folk-stoked stridency from Against Me! and American Steel; the rest

of it throws random orchestration at the wall and misses it altogether. Surprisingly,

Tony Visconti—the producer behind classic recordings by David Bowie, T.

Rex, and Morrissey, among others—helmed this mess. It's a shame he

couldn't sort the band's ideas out better. Bright Lights has odd bubbles of punk

brilliance—and yes, even convincing political outrage—trapped

within its overblown songs. But if Bright Lights is any kind of musical

barometer measuring the strength and focus of political dissent in America,

it's yet another small reason to be very afraid for the future.