Rock and roll is a mind bomb, especially when you're young. Listen carefully and it'll take you to another world. It'll turn you on to new ideas that you probably didn't get from school, parents or friends. It'll inspire you more universally, and sometimes, I dare say, there's even a little salvation in it.
Matt Johnson knows that. Religion is a dominant theme throughout Mind Bomb. The album has a spirituality/religion through sex bent that is second only to Prince, but he also likes to mix politics into it. "If the real Jesus Christ were to stand up today he'd be gunned down cold by the C.I.A." That lyric has always stuck with me, and popped into my head before I pressed play on my deck. Listening to Mind Bomb again I'm shocked how relevant some of the lyrics are, especially on a song like "Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)."
Islam is rising
The Christians mobilizing
The world is on its elbows and knees
It's forgotten the message and worships the creeds
I bought this album at the tail end of my cassette buying days. It very well could have been the last cassette I bought before making the switch to CDs. Listening to it again after all of these years it's pretty apparent to me that if I had actually bought it on CD it would have been in rotation much more frequently.
The tape sounds great. There's a little warbling at the beginning, which is of course repeated on the other side of the tape towards the end, but other than that it plays as beautifully as it did back in 1989. "The Beat(en) Generation" is every bit as great as I remember it, Sinead O'Connor appears on "Kingdom Of Rain" in all her passionate glory, and "August and September" is going to have to go on my next fall mix tape. Although I'll have to find it digitally as "mix tape" is only a phrase we use now. We seldom create the real thing.
Organic sounding and uncompromising, and yes, more than a little challenging, Mind Bomb still lives up to its title.
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