“Mourning In America” kicks off pretty much where the final chords of “So It Begins” left us. Sound and production wise these three songs could have been from the same recording session as “So It Begins” but listening to “Mourning In America” it hardly feels like ‘leftovers’, quite the contrary actually, Crucial Change seem to grow with every release, even though there has only been a few months since “So It Begins” and “Mourning In America”.
Although I don’t dislike your average ‘Oi! Oi! Havin’ a laugh’ Oi! band, there is nothing funny about Crucial Change and their lyrics. As the title “Mourning In America” might suggest these guys mean serious business with smart written, intelligent lyrics on the title track as well as the two remaining tracks “This Force” and “Who Laughs Last” (including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quote “Cowardice asks ‘is it safe’, conscience asks ‘is it right?’”). What does put a smile on my face is the music, because on “Mourning In America” Crucial Change really outdone themselves once again! Their mix of Oi! and a hint of hardcore sounds so tight and powerful but yet still melodic that they are one of my favorite bands at the moment and I can easily have the digital version of this EP on repeat for two hours straight, great stuff!
“Mourning In America” comes out in a few different versions. Crowd Control Media took care of the North-American release and comes out on three different colors of vinyl and has alternative artwork to the European edition by This Means War of who I don’t have any further release info yet. Also CCM will release “Mourning In America” along with “So It Begins” (previously only available on vinyl by TMW or digital) on CD including a unreleased bonustrack! Pretty of versions to choose from if you ask me, and I suggest you take your pick, because this is one of the better EP’s that will be released this year!. 3 tracks!
- Mourning In America
- This Force
- Who Laughs Last
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