“Passion is a young man’s game. Older people gotta be more wise,” said Bob Dylan recently. Now into their third decade together, Anti-Flag’s tenth album actually displays both passion and wisdom. Their lyrics remain politically charged, but the focus is more societal than idealistic, and while you could say they’ve mellowed musically, they’ve actually just opened their ears to more forms of what constitutes ‘punk’. So for every pop-punk standard, there’s a Sky Is Falling or Song For Your Enemy recalling Billy Talent and Jonah Matranga respectively, and American Spring is the best the Pittsburgh quartet have sounded in years.
FOR FANS OF: Green Day, Billy Talent, Far
(this review was originally published in rock sound magazine issue 200 Jun 2015)
GARETH PIERCE 