Dead Kennedys
Frankenchrist
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/9875228-Dead-Kennedys-Frankenchrist
Year Of Release: 1985
Review
Dead Kennedys was, and remains, one of my favourite bands. And Frankenchrist was my favourite album from them for most of my teens and twenties. It wasn’t until I got a working copy of Plastic Surgery Disasters that it slipped down to second on the list. Not that that really matters. Much was made of the inclusion of the Landscape #XX print by H. R. Giger. Interestingly, my CD copy includes a different insert.
This is an accomplished album, and not necessarily something that you would have expected musically from the Dead Kennedys. It’s not your father’s hardcore album, as the old timers might say, and the songs are a little longer, a little more melodic, and ultimately much scarier from a lyrical perspective than some of the hardcore albums released around that time. I remember thinking that This Could Be Anywhere (This Could Be Everywhere) sounded like an absolute nightmare, but as I got older, I realised it was the reality for some Americans.
I remember thinking when I was a little older that it was funny how Jello would talk a bit about the same issues over and over as the years went on. Not that he was super repetitive, but sometimes there were things that I’d heard before. And then I realised that he had to repeat things, because people weren’t learning from past mistakes. And nothing seemed to be changing. And now here we are. Dead Kennedys, for someone growing up in regional Queensland in the eighties, was an eye-opening experience, and considered quite dangerous too! And I continue to be thankful that I discovered them, almost despite where and when I grew up.
Standout tracks are the aforementioned This Could Be Anywhere (This Could Be Everywhere), Hellnation, A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch, Macho-Rama (Invasion Of The Beef Patrol), and Stars And Stripes Of Corruption. At My Job irritated me then, and irritates me now, probably because it was a little too real.
Rating: 9/10