Peaceful screams plea for peace on Operation Ivy’s 1991 album “Energy.”
Ivy played together for a little over two years but has been iconoclastic for the generations that have followed.
The 27-song album originally released in 1989 contained 19 songs, but was then re-released after the demise of the band with eight extra tracks, in 1991.
The skunky rhythm enters the body as it skips across the mind steady enough for the words to be slung-shot with rapid-fire precision into one’s ear.
Picking up the shattered thoughts and scraping them along the brain, the album opens up with a tongue-in-cheek number about knowledge.
Maybe blindly stalking around the crowd is a more painful solution?
It might be a solution if all you have is the sound system blasting though your socket.
It might not be, but if you ask the right questions then you wouldn’t have to wander so aimlessly.
“Unity” is a standout track that comes to my mind. It starts with the line, “There’s a war coming down between my brothers tonight/I don’t want no war going down, going down tonight.”
Jesse Michaels, one of the singers taking part in gifting out phrases, speaks very fast and very aggressively. If you do not keep up with his speech pattern, the whole translation might be lost.
This is a very nice technique that can be appreciated by the likes of his kind.
If you tune it on and just think he is yelling and screaming, a conscious thought might be to consider it babbling racket.
A closer look will reveal its true beauty, a beauty that can be appreciated by those in the know and anyone with a little patience, an open mind, and some time to digest it completely.
They even have a song about people who play those lovely sing-a-longs for teenagers who have no conscious idea that they are being used as they consume it like fudge.
“He’s got a song about a love that’s gone away/Sometimes his eyes shed tiny teardrops when he plays/His touching feelings are just sitting there to buy/They call it music but it seems more like a lie.” Just stop it already. Honestly, what are you proving?
I cannot state enough that the great thing about Operation Ivy is that they just play with a ferocity that begs “accept me or leave me.”
Whether someone takes a positive or negative outlook on their music, everyone learns something.