“A soundtrack for the resistance” is how this collective, featuring members of Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill, are selling their debut album. While hitching their wagon to the rebellious sentiment that has flared in the US following the election of Donald Trump is certainly a savvy marketing move, it’s difficult to imagine millions marching on Washington to the sounds of this reheated 20-year-old rap-rock. Nothing here comes remotely close to the levels of sonic and lyrical urgency that first bubbled up on RATM’s self-titled debut or Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Lyrically there’s a sense of slovenliness to the sloganeering, with lines that are meant to feel rousing – “Stand up and rise like the tide” on Unfuck the World – seeming instead rather boilerplate. Occasionally, a hint of past glories glint through – as when Chuck D compares Trump to another headline-grabbing, race-baiting politician with the droll line “By George, he’s the new Wallace” (on Hail to the Chief) – but for the most part this is a revolution that feels sanitised.
