On Know Your Rights The Clash handily provided their listeners with a “public service announcement with guitars.” 43 years on, and on their twentieth album/EP release to date, Imposter Syndrome, the prolific Ex- provide not so much a public service announcement but a social conscience with guitars. Taking nothing away from the rest of the band, the vitality and energy of whose playing provides the indispensable soundtrack to Imposter Syndrome, Meek’s lyrics here are as essential as ever and a crucial part in what makes Ex- stand head and shoulders above the majority of their peers. As someone who is as profuse in his writing as Meek, he never fails in managing to blend his creativity with a nail on head social commentary. There is no moment of weakness, nothing put to paper or onto tape that doesn’t have a pin point accuracy, or the ability to touch a raw nerve.
And when you add to those lyrics, the perfect song structures, packed to bursting with copious hooks and riddled with ridiculously addictive melodies you have a winning combination that seems to come as second nature to this impeccable quartet. On Say Nothing, Do Nothing, the thunderous mid-song break which segues into guitar riffs to die for is worth the entrance fee alone… From then on in, every song is the musical equivalent of hitting the ball out of the park, achieving home run after home run, the album is the very definition of the phrase all killer, no filler.
There is nothing simple about any of these songs, whether it be a shrewd twist in the tale of the lyric, a boldly lush chord progression or clever key change, a powerful change in pace led by the solid rhythm section, or gloriously textured razor-sharp guitar riffs the album is packed to the gunnels with aural delights that will have you coming back from more, but here’s the thing, they don’t just throw everything at the songs and hope something sticks, nothing is overdone or overblown, everything is there for a reason, and as a result each and every song feels like a mini cinematic epic.
Returning to the start of this review and that Clash reference, the closing track’s title You Have the Right to Remain Silent closes the album in style and proves there is absolutely no need for this band to have experience the Imposter Syndrome their album title suggests. Fr from it, in fact it is the countless wannabe punk band’s out there who merely walk in identikit footsteps of those who have come before who need to take note and learn from the Ex- playbook. As Meek says on the album’s opening track “press two to repeat.” Ad infinitum.
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