Lucknow Pact "The Critics, The Band, The In-Between"

There’s been an obvious trend the past few years for post-post-punk bands to name themselves with an eye toward the militaristic and/or political–Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol–nominally (not ideologically) aligning themselves with the originator of the trend, Army of Lovers. No, wait, Gang of Four. Anyhoo, Sweden’s Lucknow Pact is named after a 1916 treaty between the Indian Muslim League and their British colonizers that gave the former much greater latitude with their individual freedoms. Okay, so Mohammad Ali Jinnah didn’t start World War I or anything, but he’s got his own Wikipedia page. The band matches the sound of their British and American counterparts, while offering at least one lyric that examines the relation between the musicians and those that type about them, in “The Critics, The Band, The In-Between” (mp3): “We smile when you’re not around/We cry when you write us down/Put ourselves through a lot of pain/Humiliation/who’s to blame?” They then offer the olive branch during the chorus: “We love all of you!” So, while not expressly political, you can say that they, within the course of this song, started and ended their own little war.

Watch the video for another song, “A Few Drinks A Few Laughs” (wmv)

Buy Youth is for the Old here.

Filed under: Army of Lovers  Bloc Party  Franz Ferdinand  Gang of Four  Interpol  Lucknow Pact