Bob Vylan is one of the recent targets of backlash for speaking out against the genocide happening in Palestine. Ironically? Terrifyingly? Pathetically? some people are reacting to their protest against this horrifying reality rather than discussing the mass violence itself. It's really fucked up when you think about it. A few days ago, the punk duo teased that it was "time to get some music out." And now the new music is here in the form of the single "Sick Sad World."
"Sick Sad World" is a validating psych-punk whirl. The lyrics address societal collapse, corruption, and injustice. "Can't afford to feed ourselves but they're feeding us lies," Pascal Robinson-Foster aka Bobby Vylan declares. He paints images of long food bank lines and the vast spectrum of pigs that prioritize power and money over human lives. It's a cancer that needs to be cut out: "The bad apple leaves a sour taste/ The remedy is to cut the whole tree down/ If not now then when?/ It happens again and again/ Then again and again." There might even be an Epstein reference? "Still lying when their colleague puts a life to an end" goes one sly line. But maybe that's just the whole lot of coverups.
Anywho, "Sick Sad World" has some punky gnarliness to it that brings to mind brilliant weirdos like the Cramps, the Sonics, Devo. It really reminds me of the seasonal classic "Spooky Scary Skeletons." The single's cover art and the title itself are a nod to the in-universe TV from '90s cartoon series Daria. It's a running gag throughout the show that satirizes how fucking bonkers this world is. Fitting!
Listen to "Sick Sad World" below.
