It’s not that the music on Freedom is always ineffective, or that it’s that way for not being enough like Shape. It’s the old tired cliché of a band neutered by their own historical legacy. Take the intro guitar part of “Dawkins Christ” which copies the intro to “New Noise”, or “366” which knowingly duplicates the polyrhythmic riffing and groove of “The Shape of Punk to Come”, or the introduction of “Useless Europeans” which borrows the looming crowd cheers and pulsing bass from the introduction of “Rather Be Dead”.
“Dawkins Christ” has the familiar tension and release of their best work, and sonically comes closest to honoring their legacy. But when “Françafrique” kicks in, with its Tom Morello-esque guitar riff and cheap funk/soul shout-choruses, it becomes downright musically confusing. Wasn't this the band that wanted to airwaves back? It’s catchy but feels like a ploy for the young and the mall bound. This is especially clear when you get to “Servants of Death” which has one of the more unabashedly corny guitar lines you’ll hear in 2015, with a forced pre-chorus that feels like the Red Hot Chili Peppers (or Nile Rodgers to be generous). Unlike the work of current tourmates Faith No More who have a similar legacy of making ambitious and forward thinking rock for a cult fanbase, Refused doesn’t have the slightest clue of what they look like to the listener, of how droll they come across screaming about what now feel like eclipsed gasoline dreams. On “Elektra”, Lyxzén shouts (shrewdly) that, “Nothing has changed”.