Not every loved band that missed their shot should reunite and make a record. Not every reunited band should make a record that sounds like the days of yore, nor should every reunited band be predictable and make a go for it in as big a way as possible, especially when politics and ideology are so entwined with their style and genre. Now more than ever, the need to differentiate sincere artistry from the wryness of a nostalgia market is of essence not just for music culture but creativity in general. Artists should be able to express themselves no matter how long their hiatuses might be, or how punk or conservatively they want to re-interpret their legacies. In fact, even thinking critically about this album shows that there is a kind of tyranny of what happens to a group after they make a classic album, and for that matter, the tyranny of criticism for its follow up release.
There’s also an argument to be made for détournement, disguising progressive political philosophies in digestible, self-aware formats to reach the largest populations. There’s also an argument to made for letting sleeping dogs lie. In the face of technology, the festival circuit, corporate money cannibalizing your tastes to look hip, brands bankrolling artistic activity, and the ease with which material can be shared online as quickly as it can be forgotten, the music business remains indistinguishably enmeshed in its cultural bi-product. Now more than ever a band could stand for something bigger than itself, in favor of unimagined futures, while pushing the musical envelope. In ’98, Lyxzén sang about unions on the production line on “The Deadly Rhythm” and in the band's final press release, likened their internal struggles to that of exploited laborers. On “Dawkins Christ” he’s singing about the futility of belief. From Marxism to Nihilism. Listening to Freedom reminds us what the new noise should look, feel and sound like.