Laibach - Spectre

Laibach
Spectre
3 March 2014
Mute

2 stars out of 5

 

Ljubljana, Slovenia’s Laibach have always been controversial and subject to extensive misinterpretation. Fascists? Nazis, even? Well, no, but if you look simply at their uniforms and glance at their lyrics you’d be forgiven for not recognizing the irony. “Laibach,” after all, is the name the Nazis gave to Ljubljana during their occupation of the city in World War II. Part of the band’s purposeful technique of absorbing “the mannerisms of the enemy,” the name, the outfits, and the lyrics of Laibach have all been directed at very specific political targets, fascism being one of the most important. Over thirty years into their career, they give us Spectre, which deals lyrically with topics such as the evils of capitalism and the anxieties felt in Europe over immigration.

“Spectre” is a bizarre military march (well, not bizarre for Laibach), complete with whistling soldiers, that (perhaps predictably) turns into an EBM patriotic anthem, in which the band promises to fight for you. Fight for you in what cause? Well, against the man, of course. Against capitalism, the military-industrial complex, and all that. “No History” is more direct Euro-Industrial dance music, while “Eat Liver!” is a borderline silly track, sung by Melodrom member Mina Špiler (Špiler is now a full-time member of both Melodrom and Laibach). “We Are Millions and Millions Are One” continues the rather mundane parade of vague anti-capitalist lyrics, though musically it’s perhaps the most accessible track on the album (not that there’s anything especially challenging here). “Europe is falling apart,” sings Milan Fras in “Eurovision,” a bleak look at the continent amidst a euro in turmoil and cities erupting in protest and burning in riots. “Koran,” the closer, is the stand-out track on the album. Cloaked in ambiguity, the lyrics comment on the belief in a better world, brotherhood, equality, freedom, and happiness for all. But whose point of view is Fras adopting here? What “words can take us far away,” and why were they weapons just a moment before? Feel free to interpret and misinterpret as you desire.

There are points on Spectre where Laibach sounds more like (later period, watered-down) KMFDM than like Laibach. The music on this album is sanitized EBM-by-numbers, the lyrics full of trite sound bites rather than deep manifesto. In short, this ain’t no Opus Dei or Let It Be. Really, it’s barely a WWIII. But is that the point? Is Laibach parodying itself, telling us a tale about how political music is irrelevant in our post-Occupy Wall Street™, Upworthy-fuelled world?

reviewed by Richard Krueger