I was oddly (and sadly) surprised when I was doing my usual rounds on punk news websites the other day and I found that the Rebel Spell was offering their latest album, It's a Beautiful Future (released in February) as a free download from their Bandcamp page. I think I was both disturbed and disappointed by this. I think it is just my perception of why they were doing it (which could be right or wrong). I just took it as a hint that it wasn't selling, so they were giving it away as an attempt to get it out there.

After mulling it over, I decided to take it upon myself to review the album and try to help promote the album, and do it with a sense of urgency that would try (but couldn't even come close) to be comparable to that of the Rebel Spell's music. By that I mean, the music makes you want to go out and do something, and do it now. Isn't that what the spirit of punk music is about? So I went back and listened to the band's back catalogue and found that that is the best way I can describe the energy of their music: urgent. It is unmatched by anything else I have ever heard. I was reminded of and even listened to Rise Against's Siren Song of the Counter Culture, which was written with the sense of urgency that the title implies. But even in a Bush-era political climate, they couldn't match the energy produced here by the Rebel Spell.

With all this talk of urgency I better get to the point: It's a Beautiful Future is 12 tracks of full-force political punk rock. A nice surprise is that they experiment with different instruments, with the introduction of "Uncontrollable" played on a violin, and it serves to keep the music fresh and exciting–not that I think that was a problem beforehand. While the album doesn't contain any filler in my opinion, standout tracks include "Beautiful Future", "Move of Movers", "Current Occupants" and "The World Turned Upside Down" (which is actually a slower-paced song, but still wields the same type of power as the other songs on the album).

On "All We Want", the lead singer cranks out "All we want is to be left alone." Well, I am quite sure that he did not mean that to be the case for this album, so do yourself a favour and give It's a Beautiful Future the "Beautiful Future" it deserves and give it a listen.