Favorite Albums: 2000-2004
5. Fugazi, The Argument
Original position on my Stylus ballot: #4
If Fugazi didn’t know they were breaking up when they recorded this, they must have realized soon after that it was a great album to go out on. The ominous cover, the untitled cello intro, the epic arrangements (is that sitar at the end of “Strangelight”?), doubled drums - it’s like they said “fine, we’re the Led Zeppelin of this shit” and belatedly dropped their Zoso. (Portentousness fans: there’s a photo of a goddamn plane in the liners of this war-themed, fall ‘01 release. Christ, were they consulting a Ouija board?) The guys all wear respectable gray civvies on the back cover, but if you told me Ian MacKaye was wearing a cape during the sessions, I’d believe it.
Holy hell highlights include “Full Disclosure,” blamming forth like System Of A Frikkin’ Down as Guy Picciotto shrieks for the rapture, cresting into euphoric release with ghosts from Bikini Kill and Unrest cooing behind him (the ladies return for his slinky - slinky! - ode to bloodshed “Life And Limb”). Ian sounds like he’s trying to sum up his whole gestalt on “Epic Problem” and “Ex-Spectator,” finally accepting on “The Argument” that he’ll always be debating with somebody. Bad moon risen, he ends the album shrieking “here it comes!” as the band crashes around itself one last time, a hi-hat closing the tomb shut. Having achieved a cold classic rock grandiosity despite themselves, they knocked out a handful of dates before calling it a day to raise families in relative obscurity. That was so Fugazi of them.
