Rise Against

Nowhere Generation

SPINEFARM

Tim McIlrath and his punk revolutionaries call out to America’s youth.

There’s an odd kind of patriotism at play in the ninth album from Chicago punk firebrands

Rise Against. Not the boneheaded, gun-toting, flagwaving, “USA!”-chanting kind we saw storming the Capitol, of course; they’re very much from the opposite side of the political spectrum to those people. It’s in the way that Nowhere Generation, and particularly its title track, is an uncompromising call to arms to their country’s youth to rise up and reclaim the American dream from the ring-fenced, middle-class, middle-aged greed and privilege that keeps so many people in dead-end jobs, to move things on, and to save the environment while they’re at it. The sloganeering surfs in on a wave of ultracatchy punk melodies, dragging the listener along in its wake. Hopefully millennial rock audiences are listening and inspired to rise up and sort out the mess their parents’ generation have left them with. ■■■■■■■■■■