Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
To each generation the prospect of strife, hardship and being looked down upon a despicable Government is a very real and frightening prospect. For the current younger generation who have lived through what was called with vigour and dishonesty, a credit crunch, a decline or even a slowdown in the economy but will perhaps be given its rightful name of the great Depression of the 21st Century as history unfolds. Three Minute Hero’s latest single, In This Generation, looks deep into the eyes of those that have caused such misery and want and shows the world exactly what despair he sees in the hate filled iris’.
The new single, with its complimenting B-side of Rip Off Britain really captures the poverty and suffering felt by so many but to whom the alright Jack attitude, the walk on by it cannot be seen thought has prevailed long after the recovery roots of the economy has taken place.
The lyrics of both songs hit home with the destructive resonance of a sledgehammer bouncing off a wooden shack hastily arranged in Central Park as the true depth of Depression takes place. It is this hitting home of a musician steeped in social awareness that really brings the song standing to attention.
What Three Minute Hero manages to do is turn the ideal set out by The Who in their 1965 classic, the hope and suitable anarchy of the young born after the war and the setting out of a war against their peers and turns that tide of social upheaval into something more discerning, more thoughtful and provoking; never mind the notion of “I hope I die before I get old”, more like I hope I have a chance to live before I die.
For Three Minute Hero, Stuart Todd’s marvellous alter ego, In This Generation, is an excellent and well produced follow up to 173 (Is Just A Number) and one that adds weight to the discussion of just how much we have as a society have let down those who cannot help themselves.
Ian D. Hall