225. Fugazi - red medicine

225.Fredmedicine,
originally uploaded by jrd550.

On Red Medicine the band is, to me at least, perfecting their future sound, allowing ideas and sounds to flow freely (such a bullshit sentence, no?). The instrumental tracks "Combination Lock", "Version", et al speak louder than the tracks with vocals - or tend to reveal more. Maybe I am reading too much into this, but since instrumentals don't have to fall into a basic song structure I feel they are more indicitive of what the band is thinking/feeling. Furthermore, on the releases after Red Medicine the band is able to perfectly mesh the free form of their instrumentals into standard song structures (which for Fugazi are anything but standard). More on this to come. Again, great packaging design.

8 out of 10