Against All Odds - CD

Release Notes

A History of Insurgence: Release Notes: Muze 
Conflict includes: Steve Ignorant.A failed attempt at an epic-sounding album, which came out around the same time as The Final Conflict, Against All Odds is very depressing and not at all moving like some of their earlier records. This A-side, which is made up of just one song, the title cut, is almost a complete loss musically. It's repetitive and goes nowhere, and the only moments that rock are the few bits when Colin Jerwood sings. The B-side is better, but still weak compared to almost any other Conflict record. The only worthy tunes on Against All Odds are "Slaughter of Innocence," which is their zillionth or so song about animal rights, but a good one, "A Message to Who," a weird number which seems to be stating that love and friendship are essential to fighting the state, and the closing "A State of Mind," Conflict's first electronic dance number, which isn't half bad, but sounds very '80s. The best thing about Against All Odds is the gatefold album cover on the vinyl copy, which is covered with entertaining articles about Conflict from the mainstream press, some of them from tabloid papers, attacking the band. ~ Adam BregmanA History of Insurgence is the essential Conflict album: collecting every song from all ten singles the Crass-affiliated anarcho-punks released between 1981 and 2006, it boils lead singer and provocateur Colin Jerwood and his always-shifting band lineups down to their shouty, sloganeering essence. These 24 songs seethe with righteous indignation, most often expressed in two- to three-minute bursts of hardcore blurt: 1982's "Conflict" should be every bit the hardcore anthem that "Minor Threat" is. However, because Conflict were affiliated with Crass, and through that association to acts like Flux of Pink Indians and the Ex, they're not widely understood even by the wider punk underground. Those other bands took their fight against convention even to the musical orthodoxy of punk, incorporating a wider variety of musical styles with each release; Conflict, by contrast, have basically remained true to the sound of early-'80s hardcore throughout their career. Ironically, this perhaps makes them more accessible to younger generations of punk kids whose concepts of what punk should and should not sound like are, sadly, more circumscribed than the first and second generation of punks might have hoped. So while A History of Insurgence might be slightly dispiriting to an old-school Crass fan, it actually serves perfectly as an introduction to Conflict for anyone too young to have been there at the time. ~ Stewart Mason

Credits

Performer Conflict