Pink Punk – Zoo Political















Pink Punk – Zoo Politics – 4/5
http://www.mediafire.com/?zyt4ywnnqhi

And another!

The best genre to really place this in would be hip-hop, but the title doesn’t really fit. Instead it’s more of an experimental, politically themed spoken poetry, and I really do mean poetry. This isn’t generic in any way, it’s carefully thought out and are the most important thing in this album, which doesn’t happen very often.

There are other sounds used, electronic effects, synths, piano pieces, looped spoken pieces, effects on his voice, and the more conventional guitar and drums approach, but this is all done in a way to never draw focus, to provide a backing for the vocals. The vocals themselves are passionate but not sung, or even rapped. They are spoken, with his Irish accent coming through strong he speaks his mind, and don’t expect him to sugar coat anything.

Tackling issues from using overly thin models in advertising, how we live in a ‘pink’ world filled with happy pop bands (Britney Spears gets a mention) and bad TV (Jonathon Ross *also* gets a notable mention here) to avoid the harsh realities of the war that is being fought, the atrocities that are being committed around the world, with lines like “One world, homogenised under, one gun; America” pointing the satire in the state of, it must be said, America is his target.

The problem with this is the manner in which he puts forward his argument. He leaves no room for interpretation, he says opinion as though they were fact, drawing on negativities of his chosen topic, ignorant of any positive value it might have and before you can think of anything he’s already moved onto calling you an idiot. He drills all his points beyond what should be necessary, and somewhere between calling all religion bullshit and telling you which US presidents should have been shot it begins hard to listen to. In fact, the only point I think he failed to drill in enough was the line ‘I’m screaming with you, not at you.’

This is really well done poetry. His points are often valid, and intriguing, and the passion with which he puts them forward gives them impact, and it makes for interesting listening. But this is not an album you can leave in the background, it demands listening and comprehension, and requires you to be prepared to be offended.

Highlights: Yapolitical, Monkey TV, Do the Right Thing

By T. Bawden

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