“With a video depicting the plotting of the revolution, Algiers tear through an evocation of what it’s like to be on the receiving end of vicious and misused institutional power. It also helps that it’s one hell of a tune. Listen up because we might be edging into song of the year territory, never mind song the week.”
– Under The Radar
“The music on this song and album is wildly intense, spanning the minimalism of Suicide, the inspirational sound of gospel, John Carpenter’s lo-fi synth explorations and the post-punk of Public Image Limited.”
– NPR
“These new songs, are fantastic – running the gamut between funk basslines, rolling piano, hissing booms, insidious Vatican shadow rattles and BBC Radiophonic Workshop if they did goth ballads.”
– The Quietus
Franklin James Fisher:
vocals, backing vocals, guitar, bass, cello, double bass, piano, keys, sampling, wurlitzer, tambourine, percussion, drum programming,
Ryan Mahan:
bass, synths, baritone guitar, guitar, backing vocals, drum programming, samples
Lee Tesche:
guitar, prepared guitar, prepared piano, sax, harmonium, synth, music box, tape loops, electric cymbal, backing vocals
Matt Tong:
drums, guitar, glockenspiel, drones, chimes, backing vocals
Adrian Utley:
modular synths, moog bass, guitar, feedback, drum machine, backing vocals
Ali Chant:
backing vocals, guitar
Macks Faulkron:
guitar
Ashiya Eastwood:
backing vocals
Travis “ONO”:
Vocals
Jesse Upton Crowe:
backing vocals
Produced by Algiers, Ali Chant, and Adrian Utley
Additional production by Ben Greenberg
Engineered by Oli Jacobs, Patrick Phillips, Macks Faulkron, Chris Keyes, Alex Weston, Paul Reust, Ben Greenberg
Mixed by Randall Dunn at Avast! (Seattle), Mix assisted by Will Smith
Mastered by Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering Service
Recorded June-October 2016 at Real World (UK), Ade’s House (Bristol), REX Studios (London), Strange Weather (NYC), Figure 8 (NYC), Walker Studios (NYC), Argot Studio (NYC), Goat Farm (Atlanta)
WALK LIKE A PANTHER
“But when I leave you remember I said, with the last words on my lips, I am a revolutionary. And you’re going to have to keep on saying that. You’re going to have to say that I am a proletariat. I am the people. I’m not the pig. You’ve got to make a distinction. And the people are going to have to attack the pig.
But when I leave you remember I said, with the last words on my lips, I am a revolutionary.”
We won’t be led to slaughter
This is self-genocide
It’s the hand of the people that’s getting tenser now
And when we rise up…
I feel it coming down because
You lived your life in the sunshine
You bought your way out of Hell
You paid the toll with the souls of your people
Then you absconded to the tower up on the hill
Until way down in the valley
You heard a terrible sound
The killing noise that just followed you closer and closer
Until it found you out and read the charges that brought you down
You took the names of the masters
You burned your children for Baal
You sold your sons and your daughters for silver
And gave over everyone and everything for your will
You made a whore of the struggle
You made a joke of our shame
So this time we’re gonna break down the breakdown of meaning
This is a final execution
It’s our endgame
We won’t be led to slaughter
This is self-genocide
It’s the hand of the people that’s getting tenser now
And when we rise up…
I feel it coming down
When everything that was solid
Finally melts into air
And the champagne runs sour
Will we finally have your ear?
It should be murder for murder
For what you did to the cause
It should be straight retribution
But we’re your flesh and your blood
We’re your fate and your fortune
The promise you couldn’t keep
Reconcentration of power
The terror under the street
We are the fight for survival
The sum of all your defeat
The sum of all your betrayal
The love that you’d have to die just to feel
We won’t be led to slaughter
This is self-genocide
It’s the hand of the people that’s getting tenser now
And when we rise up…
I feel it coming down
“I’m not the pig”
CRY OF THE MARTYRS
With the world to win behind us
Our hands shorn for all to see
They’ll till the dirt with our bodies to remind us
Of our defeat at calvary
They’ll say our whole life is a locust
Disturbing their fractious peace
But it is they who mangle our horizons
Of our defeat at calvary
But I see the light
And I see the sea
Despite the future crashing down and closing around me
I got power over all my enemies
Listen to the martyrs cry for me
I see the light
And I see the sea
The sun is going down but it won’t ease the burning
I’ve seen it written on the other side of history
Listen to the martyrs cry for me
With the world to win behind us
Our hands shorn for all to see
They’ll till the dirt with our bodies to remind us
Of our defeat at calvary
They’ll say our whole life is a locust
Disturbing their fractious peace
But it is they who mangle our horizons
Of our defeat at calvary
There are histories of violence
Reduce our memories to silence
Repressing all the stories of the unsung and unseen
Listen to the martyrs cry for me
I see the light
And I see the sea
I’m ready for the spiral down
I’m waiting for perdition
But I can’t carry myself down to die in peace
Listen to the martyrs cry
With the world to win behind us
Our hands shorn for all to see
They’ll till the dirt with our bodies to remind us
Of our defeat at calvary
They’ll say our whole life is a locust
Disturbing their fractious peace
But it is they who mangle our horizons
Of our defeat at calvary
THE UNDERSIDE OF POWER
I’ve been stranded and paid to die on the side of the road
I’ve been shot just because my heart
I’ve lost the times I’ve been bought and sold
I’ve been the victim of golden eyes
I’ve seen the dead walk among the living
In division, what’s stripped away is made the same on the other side
Because I’ve seen the underside of power
It’s a game that can’t go on
It could break down any hour
I’ve seen their faces and I’ve known them all
Once I vanished to reappear as an object of love
I’ve been ripped from the inside out
And then delivered in the hands of the devil
I’ve been convicted of ancient crimes
And made to drift from Hell to treason
In division, what’s stripped away is made the same on the other side
Because I’ve seen the underside of power
It’s just a game that can’t go on
It could break down any hour
I’ve seen their faces and I’ve known them all
We’re on the wrong side of the power
It’s a shadow
It’s just a fire thrown across the wall
Hold on
Standfast
Stay strong
Change is coming on
One day a change is gonna come
Because I’ve seen the underside of power
It’s just a game that can’t go on
It could break down any hour
I’ve seen their faces and I’ve known them all
We’re on the wrong side of the power
It’s a shadow
It’s just a fire thrown across the wall
Because I’ve seen the underside of power
It’s just a game that can’t go on
It could break down any hour
I’ve seen their faces and I’ve known them all
DEATH MARCH
Oh no
On no, no, no
This can’t be how it all falls apart
Constant fear of explosion
Crypto-fascist contagion
Oh yeah
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
They took no time to unwind it all
Manufactured suggestion
Wag the dog and then drown him
How hate keeps passing on
This is how the hate keeps passing on
Oh no
On no, no, no
This can’t be how it all whimpers out
Live to die in the gutter
Empty ivory towers
Oh yeah
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
They pay no mind just to wind you up
Informed autosuggestion
State-sanctioned assassination
How hate keeps passing on
This is how the hate keeps passing on
How hate keeps passing on
This is how the hate keeps passing on
MME RIEUX
She always is standing on a ledge atop the landing
And we feign a smile because we’ve reached an understanding
Not to think or dwell on anything
Anything of import
Despite this precarious precipice
And our conversation drags from the slight to exegesis
And her voice begs for comfort
But I cannot resist
To lie about my relationship
My relationship with that word: Abstraction
Abstraction
Abstraction
Abstraction
CLEVELAND
I never saw your face but I can tell
you’re there and waiting at the Right Hand
Satan laughs but I swear
I can hear all the saints on their way down
Here come the Shirts in Brown and Black
With the flashing lights
They’re hiding
In different colors in the dead of night
They’re running Waller County, Texas where 4,000 died
And down in Jackson, Mississippi they don’t have to hide
But innocence is alive and it’s coming back one day
Here come the(m) boys in black and white
With the kerosene
It’s been the same evil power since in ‘63
They hang in Homewood, Alabama with the whitest sheets
And in Montgomery County, Maryland from a sapling tree
But innocence is alive and it’s coming back one day
I don’t think you’re gonna get away
With the Seal I can hear them singing
Kindra Chapman (we’re coming back)
Brother Andre Jones (we’re coming back)
Lennon Lacy (we’re coming back)
Sandra Bland (we’re coming back)
Roosevelt Pernell (we’re coming back)
Keith Warren (we’re coming back)
Alfred Wright (we’re coming back)
We’re coming back and any day now — it won’t be long…
The hand that brings the gavel down
is the hand that ties the noose
The hand that finds you behind
And ties the thirteen loops
But that hand is gonna fold
The day is coming soon
When we fill it full of dust and resurrect the truth
‘Cause innocence is alive and it’s coming back one day
ANIMALS
They used to wear the sign on the right hand side
But now they send you letters asking you to subscribe
So they can bow their heads while he hates so loud
And say, “You don’t say. No, you don’t say. You don’t say.”
Switching hands to show its freedom of choice
You better speak now before you confuse the voices
Don’t feed the animals, they’ll only take you in
They planted all the corpses on the side of the house
And now they act surprised that they’re beginning to sprout
And now the old man’s walking around and around
Screaming, “It’s my turn! Now it’s my turn! It’s MY turn!”
While he conspires with the pig who’s been ousted
They’re hoping that you never figure it out now
Don’t feed the animals, they’ll only come back again
They’re hiding in all the corners and the cracks of the culture
Then they stay there and hide until it’s just the right cult
Of personality to power and absorb all their shame
And say, “It’s OK now. It’s OK. It’s OK.”
And promises to send the problems away
So they can wash their hands when they discover the mass graves
Don’t feed the animals, they only feign innocence
They are the judge and jury once they’ve finally found you
Once they send out the skeletons to go out and round up
All the prophets and the powerless to put them on trial
Before they’re shot down. You get shot down. You’re shot down.
Or else they’re gonna try to get you to join them
But just don’t try to say that we didn’t warn you
Don’t feed the animals, you could become one of them
This is a final round up This is a heart attack
PLAGUE YEARS
So many hiding places
Sex workers on the ring line
No solution just glossy traces
I wear her hair to the Negro races
So many glossy faces
Stigma
My stigma black night into day
Payday barter false friend wasting away
Down hill shepherds fell crossroads betrayed
And in the blaze we onstage panic play
Wasting away.
HYMN FOR AN AVERAGE MAN
Somewhere down along the line I lost the plot
You think nothing has changed?
Horrified to find that what you made has risen up
And now your hate has a name
So let a sigh ring out
Denial. Deny it. Deny it.
Draw a cold hand across your mouth
A muffled sound
While you lie there and wait
Listen to them calling out and come for you in silence
For the mess that you have made
So let a sigh ring out Denial. Deny it. Deny it.
So let a sigh ring out Denial. Deny it. Deny it.
(Ignore their screaming. You got away with it.)
Nothing is opened up
No sound in the room
The Cycle/the Spiral: Time To Go Down Slowly
Oh sugar, I go lost inside it till there ain’t nothing to gain
I can’t stop going in and out of focus while you wait for the change
This is total war on a promise
Wail against the wall
No, it’s never over
And it never ends
We are the cycle that begins
We are the spiral to the end
We are the cycle that begins
We are the spiral to the end
Oh, baby I know how to die
I don’t know how to forgive
I cried out for power.
Someday I will find it
While you wait for the end
This is total war on a promise
Wail against the wall
No it never ends
It takes you over and over…
The cycle that begins
We are the spiral to the end
We are the cycle that begins
We are the spiral to the end
Until the second it’s over
That’s twice you died and you’ll die some more
Until the second it’s over
That’s twice you died and you’ll die some more
On the second it’s over
When He says it’s over
Time to go down now slowly
Time to go now, where everything’s lost
You’ll find Hell where you fought love
You’ll find Hell when it falls apart