Album Review: Elect the Dead - Serj Tankian

After having seen this YouTube performance by Serj Tankian and the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra (watch in 1080p!) of the song, I thought I discuss a little about why I think this is a great album. Released in 2007, this album was undoubtedly a political statement by Tankian (in the vein of one of his influences, Frank Zappa). It came at a very interesting time in U.S. politics, when Iraq was rapidly disintegrating due to sectarian/insurgent violence, and when many of the problems that are being "dealt with" right now began to take shape in the political arena. The idea that Bush was leaving office was taking root in my mind, and in the minds of others I'd imagine. On one level, this album approaches the subject of politics by citing specific examples of where the government has done wrong. Tankian actively campaigns for the U.S. to recognize the Armenian genocide; it's something he's been doing for practically as long as he's been famous. When it comes to this album's title track and first single, "Empty Walls", you'd be right if you thought that the song was some kind of political statement making use of metaphorical walls as boundaries in society, and that they were "empty" and contained no real justification for their use of force (being a wall). It's not that complicated, and although I mangled it trying to explain it just now, I think the average person can infer from the title that it's at least vaguely political-sounding. The next track, "The Unthinking Majority" (also a single), is even more blatant about its political implications. Serj attacks corrupt politicians and the pharmaceutical industry's grip on society through anti-depressants and the like. Overall, Serj seems to attack passivity in politics most of all in this song. He clearly desires for people to be educated and make informed political decisions.

But I don't think we can do this album justice if we don't discuss the musical content. Some reviews I've read about this album mention that it's a slightly different twist on System of a Down's clichéd lyrics about how the political system is corrupt. I should point out that it's clear that these critics we have in mind have a dearth of appreciation for SOAD. My firm belief is that it is not possible to extrapolate what System's all about from just listening to their #1 hit singles as some kind of gospel. I would get the same impression that these critics obviously did about SOAD if all I did was listen to "Toxicity", "Chop Suey", "Lonely Day", and "Innervision". An appreciation of System can't really be outlined (that would be pretty pretentious of me, wouldn't it?), but it certainly needs to be cultivated from close listening to their lyrics and instrumentation. So the point is that it's not really fair to just cast off Elect the Dead as a mere rehashing of a contrived political statement from some former band without discussing any of the musical elements present in the album. So I, with my somewhat limited knowledge of music theory, will attempt to discuss some of the more interesting things Tankian has done with the instrumentation.

Initially note that this is an album that is best listened to from beginning to end. Having done so a few times, I think that Tankian does a good job of staying contained and coherent by employing a sort of theme-and-variations with a particular set of chords on the piano. This begins with a full instrumental flush in the song, "The Unthinking Majority" during the intro and bridge, if I'm not mistaken. As the listener progresses through the album, same-sounding chords on the piano are heard in the introductions of some of the later tracks (Sky is Over, Honking Antelope, Elect the Dead). I think this both blurs the lines between the tracks and simultaneously ties them together. It blurs the lines because similar-sounding phrases in are used in the introductions of four of the tracks, which kind of makes you wonder which song you're actually listening to if you hear it come on, let's say, on shuffle. It also ties the tracks together by virtue of being similar-sounding. From this understanding we can see now that all of the songs that have these variations on that one initial chord have relatively more political commentary than the rest of the songs. I don't know if this is a coincidence, so I'm going to go ahead and say, "no, it's not".*

Also, you have got to give credit to Serj for his amazing vocal versatility. He can belt out rock-opera-esque verses, hitting all the high notes. At the same time, his voice sounds great over a flurry of detuned, distorted guitar and some drums and bass. As the video at the beginning might illustrate, he's not that bad of a singer over a classical orchestra either.

By the way, here's a link so you can download this album and rock out to it. I paid for it, but it's your choice!
Note: I just linked to the first RapidShare I could of this album... I haven't tried it out for myself so for all I know it could have a virus or something. Probably nothing to worry about.

* There are some good piano arrangements on YouTube of many of Tankian's songs, if you're interested in seeing to which chord(s?) I'm referring.