Only going to cover three of them for now but will look at doing another one of these later down the line. All 3 are pretty different from each other but all have something noteworthy about them and I’ll be writing a short paragraph about each in order to give a general feel for them. The rest is up to you guys.
Gorillaz - Hallelujah Money (feat. Benjamin Clementine)
This is definitely one of Gorillaz’ weirder songs, and I suppose that’s one of the better ways to reflect the mood around Trump’s inauguration: Everything’s a bit of a mess and nobody quite knows what the hell is going on. Clementine’s lyrics sometimes seem a bit out of sync with the music, itself very stripped back and minimalist. He seems like a very odd choice of vocalist for this song but Gorillaz have always been a band to challenge convention. I know the band are capable of so much better though, and this track does feel as though it was rushed in order to be ready for the inauguration.
United Nations - Stairway to Mar-a-Lago
Ah, United Nations. We’ve missed you. When The Next Four Years came out in 2014 the supergroup started to include more aspects of black metal to their patented “screamo-powerviolence” sound and now they seem to be building on that. Geoff Rickly’s out of the band now, having stepped down in 2016, and the new vocalist, who the band want to keep anonymous but fans believe to be Glassjaw’s Daryl Palumbo, performs admirably on this scathing attack on Trump and the voters that allowed him to seize power. Lines such as “You all laughed until it fucking happened” hit you like a juggernaut with the band fusing violent hardcore, punishing black metal and emo melodies.
Defeat Statistics - No Justice, No Peace
This one reflects a change in direction of sorts for Watford’s Defeat Statistics. The demo they unleashed last year was significantly slanted towards emo and pop-punk but these people are fucking pissed and it seems that the switch to hardcore was they only way that they could properly summarize their feelings towards the venerable President Trump. Clocking in at just over a minute long it’s the shortest of the singles reviewed here, but definitely the angriest. Lead vocalist Frankie Marriott makes it clear in no uncertain terms what they think of the controversial “alt-right” movement and kills it with their performance. The guitars are simple but jarring and heavy, which is exactly what you want in a short, violent hardcore song. It’ll be nice to see if they continue incorporating these elements when they release their first EP later this year.
