Both my review of From Monument to Masses and Gentry’s IM post below have gotten me to thinking quite a bit more about the role of politics within music. It’s an incredibly touchy subject, in my opinion, which led my review to start off with almost a disclaimer of sorts- “read about their politics here, I will not be talking about agreeing or disagreeing with the possibility of large-scale social change within the context of this review.” It was obviously the safe move, ushering that whole issue off to the side, especially in the service of not taking the easy tack of agreeing or disagreeing vehemently with the voices involved in the process of the record and letting it affect, somehow, the rating of the record. But should it? Should a band who is overtly political allow their music to come under fire from a critic who doesn’t share their views on the world? Or should the entire thing be divorced from one another, as I tried to do, in the hopes of merely explaining what it is and what sort of aural effect it has on the proceedings and then not factoring this into the final judgment? Obviously for Gentry this might be easy with Godspeed You Black Emperor!…don’t go to their live shows if you don’t want to ever have to hear them spout off about politics. But when it’s so tightly intertwined and so up-front and personal and inescapable…well…what then?
