If this is indeed the “age of no feeling” as Koufax frontman Rob Suchan laments on his band’s new single “Why Bother At All?” then Koufax is, unfortunately, failing to assimilate to the very era they have just declared. And it works wonderfully to their favor.
Over the span of their new album Hard Times Are In Fashion’s 11 tracks, the veteran five-piece group weaves an emotional opus that tells stories of lying leaders, teenagers apathetic toward the current political climate and the band’s own embarrassment about being recognized as American.
Nowhere is the political nature of the album more prevalent than on “Why Bother At All?” – the album’s opening track. Accompanied by Koufax mainstays Jared Rosenberg on a jackhammer piano and Ben Force on guitar, as well as the new rhythm section of brothers Robert and Ryan Pope of The Get Up Kids, Suchan begins the song by questioning, “Were you born without a thought or cause, let alone a care?” before pleading for “someone to give us hope/ Rescue us.”
While the album is a departure from the subject matter of Koufax’s previous releases – which primarily dealt with love, drugs and combinations therein – Suchan warns that Hard Times’ lyrics are not as political, nor personal, as they initially appear. Last year, the 26-year-old Suchan left his native Midwest for Prague, and wrote of his experience, primarily noting the “pretty heavy anti-American sentiments” he endured in eastern Europe.
“This is a social commentary,” the lead singer and guitarist said in a phone interview. “Everyone’s affected by political matters, and there’s some pretty amazing things happening to our lives, whether it be wars or Patriot Act stuff. So rather than sort of blocking that out … it’s basically fusing the personal with the political and getting these expatriate pop songs. It’s the spirit of the era.”
Despite the shift in subject matter, Hard Times retains distinctly Koufax elements for fans of the last two records, 2000’s It Had To Do With Love and 2002’s Social Life. The recognizable song structures built around Rosenberg’s piano coupled with Suchan’s scratchy vocals and sparse guitars remain unchanged and only help build the foundation for the band’s progression. Koufax still remains a pleasant mixture of Elvis Costello and Look Sharp!-era Joe Jackson. Songs like the sunny, melody-laden romp “Isabelle” and the churning and foreboding “Trouble Will Find You” will appeal to fans of past songs like “Going to Happen” and “Come Back to Life.” Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the band added a couple of members of one of indie-rock’s most successful bands of the past decade, The Get Up Kids, which disbanded last month.
But still, the intrigue of the record comes from Suchan’s jaunt into the political realm. Make no mistake, Suchan is no Bob Dylan nor even a poor-man’s Neil Young, if such a man exists. His lyrics will not inspire radical change nor stir the waters of rebellion
