By CARLOS SAPIR

Following off of having put together the soundtrack for the movie Miss Marx, Downtown Boys’ third album, Public Luxury, continues the band’s unapologetically socialist, feminist, and Chicana brand of eclectic hardcore punk. Compared to their breakout Full Communism and their second album, Cost of Living, Public Luxury is more adventurous in terms of composition and instrumentation, while singer Victoria Marie is as indomitable and full of bilingual political rage as ever.

Downtown Boys’ sound has always been rooted in an unorthodox combination of aggressive punk and metal influences that flits between a dozen different subgenres’ worth of drumming styles beneath a no-frills guitar attack and a blaring saxophone that sounds less like “Careless Whisper” than it does an air raid siren. But this is pushed to new ground on Public Luxury. Opening with the overwhelming sludge riffs (blares?) at the beginning of “No Me Jodas” [Don’t Fuck With Me], the band soon cuts to the more familiar punk territory of high-tempo snare drums in 4/4 time that still forms the album’s through-line.

But the genre deviations range further, much further. “Yellow Sun,” a cryptic ode to resistance, features pop synths that wouldn’t sound out of place in a song by Sabrina Carpenter or Sombr. “Viva La Rosa’s” opening guitar riff could have been lifted from The Kinks or Pat Benatar. “You’re a Ghost,” meanwhile, brings out KMFDM-style industrial dance beats and a hyperpop electronic overlay.“ Public Works” features a Kraftwerk-esque dreamy bridge between thrash metal verses, which then transitions to an R&B flute-and-piano groove for “Public Luxury.”

As with other albums by the band, the lyrical delivery on Public Luxury is often difficult to parse. While the songs’ topics range from sexism, racism, and the revolutionary love that runs through the most desperate struggles, many of the songs’ lyrics are difficult to pin down beyond a raw sense of emotion. The clearer moments are in “Mi Concha” [My Pussy], in the short repudiation of colonial beauty standards (a faithful cover of the original by fellow Rhode Island indie punk rockers Malportado Kids) and “Albuterol,” which deals in personal heartbreak even as it likely notches the novelty of being the first song dedicated to the active chemical used in asthma inhalers.

There’s no doubt as to which side Downtown Boys are on, but unlike prior albums that made good use of pithy slogans for song titles like “100% Inheritance Tax,” Public Luxury is a bit more abstract and less forthcoming about its political program. As of this writing, most of the album’s songs do not have lyrics available online.

For better or for worse, Public Luxury is not a crystal-clear political manifesto. But it still brings an emotionally resonant battlecry against oppression and exploitation, and pairs it with a breadth of musical textures so vast that it’s only the band’s hardcore punk roots and ethics that keep the album under a tight 35 minutes. Whether or not the mystery contents of the album’s muddier lyrics are ever brought to light, one thing is for certain: at Downtown Boys’ revolution, the mosh pit is open.

The post Downtown Boys’ album review: A wider musical palette with the same political fury first appeared on Workers’ Voice/La Voz de los Trabajadores.

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