The 18th Best Album of the 90s: Peace, Love And Pitbulls - "Red Sonic Underwear" (1994)

Since the readers of this blog consist of about 90% non-Swedes, I reckon a little history lesson might in order:

Joakim Thåström was born in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden in 1957. Singer and guitarist in legendary punk band Ebba Grön in the late 70's and early 80's. He then fronted the highly successful political punk/pop/rock band Imperiet until they disbanded in 1988. His first solo album, simply titled Thåström was released in 1989, which was a smash hit.

Now here's where it gets interesting. By now Thåström had become a celebrity and a national icon, and he couldn't have hated it more. As a way of alienating himself from he made Xplodera Mig 2000 in 1991, a noisy industrial rock album that still remains one of my all time favorite albums. The album sold quite well despite its abrasive nature, but it was nothing compared to what was coming next.

Thåström relocated to Amsterdam and got nerdy with a sampler. His new project, which he had named Peace, Love & Pitbulls, released their first album in 1992. Basically it was Xplodera Mig 2000 taken one step further. Heavy, angry, experimental industrial rock/metal in English that left everyone confused. This marked the beginning of the low point in Thåström's carrier critically. Mainly because the critics didn't understand what the hell he was doing or why he was doing it. They wanted him to be the same old guy making the same old kind of music they grew up with in the 70's and 80's.

With PLP's second album Red Sonic Underwear in 1994 he scared away most of the last few fans, and Red Sonic Underwear remains one of the true unsung masterpieces of the 90's. PLP released their third and last album (imaginatively titled 3) in 1997, and it was considered by the critics and know-it-alls to be Thåström's return to form, since it was less industrial, a little more accessible and he sang for the first time in years, as opposed to screaming his balls off like he did on the last two albums. 3 is by far PLP's worst album, but still far ahead of anything most bands will ever record. Two years later in 1999 Thåström released a straight up rock album, and once again became the critics' darling, but still on his own terms. This is not a man who compromises.

As a rabid fan of all things Thåström, I'd have to say this is his ultimate Masterpiece (yes, with a capital M). It's angrier and noisier and more aggressively in-your-face than anything he's ever done before or since, with thumbing drums (well, drum machines, but they sound real enough most of the time), grinding guitars and screaming vocals under layers of rubble, rusty debris and rotting trash. Almost as if saying "You thought the last PLP album was heavy? Bah! That was nothing!".

I got the SNES game Alien 3 for Christmas in 1994, and used to blast this album while I played, and these two have since become forever linked in my mind. Everytime I play this album I see images in my head of Ripley running down desolate, grey concrete and steel corridors with a flame thrower taking out facehuggers.

Thåström has always had a thing for eastern Europe, and East Germany in partiuclar. Back in the old Ebba Grön days he wrote songs with titles like Scheisse (about oppressive regimes) and Die Maurer (about the Berlin wall separating two lovers), and his solo album he's had songs like Ich Liebe Dich. This trend continues on Red Sonic Underwear with track number two, Das Neue Konzept. None of these songs have lyrics in German though.

The lyrics are almost a chapter onto themselves. Thåström has himself been critical of the English lyrics he wrote for PLP, saying they don't really mean anything, they were just words that sounded good. Well I happen to think that's good enough. Lines like "Life is a picnic on a factory floor" (Warzaw), "Pig machine open up your door/Pig machine electronic war" (Pig Machine) or "I need to break out in a true Snake Plissken style" (Das Neue Konzept) are perhaps not cryptic metaphores for profound thoughts, but they evoke images that suit the unrelenting music perfectly.

This is truly one of the best heavy albums of all time, one that deserves to be heard by as many people at possible. Fifteen years after its release it's still as mind boggling, heavy, extreme, brutal and amazing as it was the day it was released.

And keep in mind that industrial metal albums never age very well - they date and grow old faster than an open carton of milk on a hot day. But ask the risk of sounding repetative, Red Sonic Underwear is as fresh and crushing as it ever was.

Do yourself a favor, citizen. Download these three tracks from the album and revel in their amazingness. Crank it way up - this is music meant to play loudly.

(mp3) PLP - Warzaw (recommended!)
(mp3) PLP - War in my living room
(mp3) PLP - Pig machine

Buy Red Sonic Underwear @ Amazon.com, why don'cha.

Pointless trivia: Alien 3 on the SNES.