Growing up in an evangelical Christian home, also meant I grew up in a rather Republican home. Needless to say, these elements were painfully intertwined, and you weren’t allowed to be critical, much less examine how that relationship came to be. In fact, questioning either of them meant you were no longer a true believer. Which also meant you were unfairly tagged as a godless heathen Democrat, among other tawdry pejoratives.
So when I spun Five Iron Frenzy for the first time in 1996, I was immediately flabbergasted.
How could a bunch of so-called Christians get away with a song like “The Old West”? Telling the Church it was wrong for its treatment of Native Americans during the era of Westward Expansion? Didn’t they know Manifest Destiny was God’s way of giving America to white colonizers who had broken away from England?
At first, I was stung and offended by their critical lyrics! But I stuck around for their high-energy brand of third-wave ska and wacky witticisms. Not only were they far less cheesy and derivative than other Christian ska acts, but they also forced me to think. Fire Iron Frenzy encouraged me to challenge my preconceived notions of what it meant to be Christian. Most importantly, how its relationship with the Republican Party might not be the best thing.
Fast forward a few decades, and I no longer listen to ska or identify as a Republican or evangelical Christian.
However, of the handful of Christian acts cracking my regular music regimen, Five Iron Frenzy has managed to keep its place. On one hand, the music hits lots of nostalgia receptors in my brain, but it’s more than that. I’m drawn to how their lyrics, ethos, and overall aesthetic made them outcasts in normal Christian music. For me, that’s all the evidence I’ll ever need to know Five Iron Frenzy is still worth my time.
After successfully crowdfunding a new album through Kickstarter back in 2013. (and by successful, I mean blowing the doors off the original goal) the band went on relative hiatus. That’s easy to do when the band members are all well into their 40s. Being spread across the country with families and full-time jobs doesn’t help matters. But when the band created another fundraiser during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, long-time fans responded with over $200,000 in funding.
With the aforementioned pandemic in play, no one exactly knew when the band would actually make the funded album.
Lo and behold, the skies opened in January 2021 to a surprise release of a brand-new album. Entitled Until This Shakes Apart, it’s easily the best thing Five Iron Frenzy has made since 1997’s Our Newest Album Ever!.
From the outset, it’s evident the band doesn’t find it necessary to play nice with the Christian music industry. Song after song finds pointed references and open barbs with how deeply entrenched Western Christendom has become with Republican politics. More specifically, during the Trump Administration. But even with Trump failing to win reelection, the commentary still holds up. Especially since the Church refuses to back away from its victim mentality.
And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what’s covered across the 13 songs of Until This Shakes Apart.
Five Iron Frenzy rail against rapacious capitalism, gentrification, environmental degradation, and the accumulation of political power at all costs. And of course, the endless wars, guns, and how cable news has polluted our discourse. The lyrics alone read like the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah reincarnated as Karl Marx joining The Democratic Socialists of America, and writing for Jacobin. This is very much a “speaking truth to power” album and I’m totally here for it.
Musically, Five Iron Frenzy has never been tighter. Yes, they’re technically a ska band, but they’ve done a lot of growing in the past 25 years. Anchored by a fleet of aggressive punk-with-horns and buzzing guitars, Until This Shakes Apart implores you to put your fist in the air as high as it will go. Perhaps the record demands it?
“In Through the Out Door” busts open with a rambunctious paean to Christians to set down their quest for power and actually pay attention to the “least of these,” as the Bible implores. Later on with “Renegades,” the band kicks it into another gear by first pointing out the terrible actions of the rich. Then warning the listener how people will eventually overwhelm the barricades in response.
I enamored with Five Iron Frenzy’s ability to slow down, relax, and truly explore reggae and dub elements.
While it might seem cliche for a third-wave ska outfit to insert those influences, the tunes feel like the band is making an authentic attempt to expand its sound in new directions.
“Lonesome for Her Heroes” features classic ska guitar, fuzzed-out bass, warm washes of Hammond organ. Plus an actual trombone solo to giving the track heaps of edge. I’m also a sucker for the humongous bass and drum groove on “Bullfight for an Empty Ring,”. Even more so as the lyrics excoriate our country’s devotion to Wall Street. I love the tremolo-soaked guitar and chilled-out tempo of “While Supplies Last,” but it’s made even better by its lyrics. How could you go wrong with lambasting hoarders and general government incompetence during the pandemic?
Hopefully, you can tell that Until This Shakes Apart is a 43-minute litany of how the rich and powerful have crushed the American people culturally and socioeconomically.
Five Iron Frenzy then takes special aim at the evangelical Christian church because they have championed, supported, and participated in those evil actions all while ignoring the actual words of Jesus. In fact, the album closer “Huerfano” (Spanish for “orphan”) serves as a call to people cast aside and ignored by the Church. It encourages them to unify for what’s right and take back the country. All that from a Christian ska band who used to sing about blue combs, John Elway, ‘80s TV, and dandelions to crowds of church kids.
It’s nice to know that the music of your youth can sometimes grow up right alongside you.