On this their third release, Upstate NY’s Last Conspirators sound better than ever delivering their trademark furious tempos. Just like the title suggests. But throughout their growing body of work, frontman Tim Livingston and gang once again prove they are no one trick pony. The head-on collision of anger and uplift in these lyrics, on newly-minted anthems “Radio Warfare” and “Somewhere Tonight in America” respectively, manage to raise the ghost of Strummer-Jones. Musically, the Last Conspirators get better with each release. On the opening “Last Ones Standing”, these guys prove once again their mastery of stripped-down punk rock. Yet at the close of this track, they throw in a violent, skillful drums-guitar battle straight out of ‘Who’s Next’. Across these seven new songs, their musical palette ranges from punk to subliminal psychedelia, steroid-strength power pop to one of the better vintage Stones-influenced sounds heard in awhile (the aforementioned “Somewhere Tonight”). At 23 minutes in length, in its economy it is sort of the anti-‘Sandinista’. Yet it rarely repeats itself. Consider this another triumph for these punk vets.
- Jeff Jarema