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- Summary: This is the second album on the Jive label for the rock quartet from St. Louis.
- Record Label: Jive
- Genre(s): Rock
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 7
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Mixed: 3 out of 7
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Negative: 0 out of 7
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They're still true believers in the cleansing if not excoriating power of rock and roll.
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Frontman/lyricist Lillian Berlin urges his listeners to "take to the streets," if necessary, to enforce the will of the people. It's a heady manifesto, but Habeas Corpus never gets bogged down in rhetoric.
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Wordman Lillian Berlin murmurs more than he declaims and prefers to share vocals with members of a shifting communal entity dubbed the “Living Things Choir,” and if that fuzzes up the lyrics, well, like most bands, Living Things are more into emotions than ideas anyway.
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Despite the catch phrases and recycled riffs, nothing about Habeas Corpus is authentic--it's all trashy punk that trivializes anything it touches--but what's fun about it is that Living Things do it all without a sense of awareness.
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The end result isn't as gripping as the debut, but Berlin is still one of hard rock's more compelling politicos.
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The strength of this follow-up is not the defiant antiestablishment fist-pumping (though there's plenty), but the tunes.
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Alternative PressThe lyrics can be heavy-handed--images of greed, violence and the apocalypse dominate, with varying levels of success--but the danceable beats and grungy atmosphere make Corpus the ideal soundtrack for debauchery in the face of economic depression. [Mar 2009, p.112]
Score distribution:
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Mixed: 0 out of
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Negative: 0 out of