Clawfinger – Use Your Brain
This post is recycled, and was originally published on my former weblog on Tuesday 2005-03-01 at 19:16:38. I tweaked some grammar and spelling here and there, but I resisted the urge to rewrite this entry almost entirely. I did not, however, refrain from commenting on myself. Sensitive souls beware: I added some brand new explicit content.
As you might have read, a couple of days ago I received the Deaf Dumb Blind and Use Your Brain reissues. So now I will be reviewing Use Your Brain, Clawfinger‘s second album; once again by going through my favorite tracks. [Once again, I added links to YouTube.]
- Use Your Brain
- Power (3:14)
- Pay The Bill (4:10)
- Pin Me Down (4:10)
- Wipe My Ass (3:13)
- Die High (2:34)
- It (5:21)
- Do What I Say (4:25)
- Undone (4:11)
- What Are You Afraid Of (3:47)
- Back to the Basics (2:27)
- Easy Way Out (2:39)
- Tomorrow (4:09)
- Better Than This * (3:36)
- Three Good Riffs * (3:56)
- Armageddon Down * (3:36)
- * Bonus Track + Videos:
- Pin Me Down, Do What I Say, Tomorrow
The second song of the album is Pay The Bill. The lyrics are sharp on the topic of what certain people think and say, but it’s the guitar (and drum stuff) which really gets the party started. [Sharp…on the topic? Say what? I suppose I meant to add a conjunction, i.e. The lyrics are sharp, and address what certain people think and say …
Perhaps I should have specified “certain people” a bit more precisely, since I’m not sure which “certain people” I was referring to anymore.] It inhabits a couple of my most favorite style of powerful chords combined with powerful rap. [I didn’t use to be aware that a couple is meant more literally in English than in Dutch; I should have said a few. Inhabit doesn’t seem like the right verb to choose here, either.]
Pin Me Down, the third track, is of a different class. If you’re still unsure whether combining ‘metal’ with rap is a good idea, listen to this. I can’t say much more about it than that this is just what Clawfinger is. [Seriously, was I on crack!? Did the pot my neighbors smoked affect me? This is just what it is, man! You know, what it is!! It is, man!]
Do What I Say, the seventh track has a really interesting start. [Nice to meet you again, Mr Fanboy.] A kid starts off by singing: When I grow up, there will be a day when everybody has to do what I say.
Then the metal guitars bash in [I don’t think you can bash something in. Maybe the guitars bash the poor child away? That doesn’t seem to convey the intended meaning either, though. Let’s just stick with “The guitars come in.”] and Zak starts singing like he’s the father, telling the kid to do what he says. [I bet you didn’t see that coming!] When I didn’t know Clawfinger very long, this was probably my favorite song. [I think I was obsessed with songs featuring children’s voices at the time, since Eminem’s My Dad’s Gone Crazy was also among my favorites.] The coolest part of the song is probably even when the kid starts rocking too. [It looks like I was indeed on crack. I clearly wanted to write The coolest part of the song is probably even cooler than the rest of the song,
and I barely managed to save myself from complete and utter embarrassment by changing it to tell people when the song is “coolest.” Bet you didn’t count on me analyzing your words in ridiculous ways when you wrote that, sucker!] I’ve introduced Clawfinger to my friends and this one, Nothing Going On and Vienna were probably the most successful.
What Are You Afraid Of (track 9) is a great song about stupid politicians and the crap they say. [Fuck yeah! Um—I mean, I was on crack, man!] Actually the whole album is pretty much politics related and some of the stuff in this song is just so damn cool. [Sorry, I got ahead of myself there. I was on crack, man!] But anyway, I think that if you don’t like this song, there’s some chance you don’t like Clawfinger at all. [Indeed there is. Any more insights, Captain Obvious?]
The bonus tracks on this album are good, but for me they don’t match a song like Profit Preacher. [Same here—wait, what?] Three Good Riffs is probably the coolest bonus track [I need to stop using the word coolest, don’t I? Hopefully, I have since stopped using it this excessively. :P], although it’s not really good in the sense of… well, good. [Pothead!] Anyway, Zak on two of them: [Yup, right on top of them.]
Three good riffs is a simple lyric about all the cliches in this great industry of rock & roll, we’re all contributing to it whether we like it or not & the more serious we try and be as artists the closer we come to being pathetic…but hell I’ll gladly treat people to that!
Armageddon down ha ha what is there to say, it’s just a pisstake on religion of all sorts and a play with words for the sake of being annoying and having a bit of fun, Armageddon down obviously means that everyone should get up on the dance floor and shake their booties, don’t really know what else to say about it?
The bottom line: if you liked Deaf Dumb Blind, this is a must buy. If you came into Clawfinger by means of the newer albums, it is something you have to check out. It’s the last of the classic Clawfinger albums. [Ouch!]