Sometimes, I have two different reviews for an album rattling around inside my head. I try to keep listening to see if one disappears, but, rarely, they both get stronger. I feel this way about the new Airbag album The Century of Self, releasing June 14th through Karisma Records.
Airbag comes to us from Norway and have been active since 2004. They have a strong discography, though I’ll admit that my appreciation for their style is waning of late. The band consists of Asle Tostrup on vocals, keyboards, and programming; Henrik Bergan Fossum on drums; and Bjørn Riis on guitars, bass, keyboards, and backing vocals. Guests include Kristian Hultgren on bass, Ole Michael Bjørndal on guitar, and Simen Valldal Johannessen on keyboards.
I said I have two reviews for this album, so let’s go with the positive one first. The band is known for their Floydian progressive rock style; they, after all, started life as a Pink Floyd cover band. They have soulful guitars, pulsating bass, effervescent vocals, and some great instrumental portions. Though their music can sometimes seem adrift or lost, this album is pretty direct and purposeful, and there are roaring instrumentals and very cool bass lines galore. The album feels very short, even though it is about 47 minutes long, and that is a testament to the band’s vigor on this album. Bjørn’s guitar work is again a major highlight for me, as he always delivers on that front.
Now, for the negative review. Airbag are known for their Floydian progressive rock style, as they began life as a Pink Floyd cover band, and they’ve really never left the shadow of that style. This sounds exactly like their last three albums, so the band hasn’t progressed or evolved whatsoever, and their vocal melodies are getting less interesting as time goes by. If you’ve heard their best album, 2016’s Disconnected, you’ve heard a much better version of this album already.
Additionally, this album is an attempt at social commentary, and I personally find it lyrically trite. It is supposed to be an attack on the fear and condemnation in our age, but I find it ultimately to be full of fear and condemnation itself. I mean, there’s a song about cancel culture, strawman arguments and all. Some listeners may connect with the lyrics, and that is fine, but they feel banal and propaganda-driven to me. I’m not really a fan of that type of thing, no matter which “side” you are on.
Okay, those are the two trains of thought that run through my mind when I hear the album, and the division in my mind grows every time I listen to the album. The record only has 5 songs, which are all pretty good musically. I like the opener “Dysphoria” with its floating pace and soulful guitar solos near the end. “Tyrants and Kings” has some annoying lyrics, but also terrific, fiery bass and is stylistically flashy and fantastic. “Awakening” is basically the same song as the opener, being a floating track with some good guitar solos.
As I’m sitting here writing this, I realized that this album basically has two songs. It has the elongated, spacey one where nothing much happens until the amazing guitar solos near the end, and then the shorter songs that are full of driving bass and wicked licks, but typically with cringe lyrics. The closer “Tear It Down” is a 15-minute piece with both types of songs within it, though I find the chorus to be somewhat weaker than the rest of the album. The way it ends makes me feel like another song should come next, so I’m always surprised when the album ends, for some reason. Anyways, it’s a decent track, but not as good as some of their other ‘epics’.
Airbag have moments of brilliance and lots of emotional guitar work, but I can’t help put feel like their music has staled. Adding inflammatory lyrics doesn’t make their music any more interesting. Big hooks, other genres, and more variety in song structure would certainly help, though. This is a rocking album, there is no doubt, but it isn’t one of their best. I’m not sure I’ll bother with their next one.
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The PROG Mind 