Red Flag - The Bitter End

A Life Worth Living
The Pyramid Song
Metropolis Kiss
One Plus One
Nobody's Perfect
Toy Piano
Barbed Wire Cuts
The Map Of Her Heart
Thin Air
Wind And Sea
The Bitter End

The latest album from Red Flag, "The Bitter End" is a much more satisfying album all in all than "Fear Of A Red Planet". They remain with the darker focus present in the past three albums, but give a more romantic overall tint to their style this time. Most of the songs are very well focused, with a very discernable message in the song.

"The Pyramid Song" is a extremely well written song, both extraordinarily catchy and quite literate. This one is well deserving of a single release. "A Life Worth Living" & "Metropolis Kiss" both are somewhat slower tunes, but just as addictive and well thought-out.

There is only one song here that were on "The End Is The Beginning" EP that I feel aren't quite as good as the version on that EP. "Barbed Wire Cuts" has been slowed down a bit more, and now feels like it drags on somewhat. The one other track that I was a little disappointed in was "The Map Of Her Heart". After seeing the title and lyrics, I had envisioned this as more of a dance song. This rather slow to mid-tempo track is alright, but I expected something else with the song. The instrumental portion of the song at 5:00 and beyond is cool though.

The final three tracks were also present on the EP in the boxed set, but are presented her in much more polished versions. Especially "Wind And Sea", which has had a extra 3 minutes added to it, making it even more haunting.

All in all, the album only falters in the middle two songs, but otherwise is a very solid representation. After the somewhat disappointing "Fear Of A Red Planet", this is a extremely strong rebound. Excellent.

Added:  Sunday, July 28, 2002
Reviewer:  Jason Baker
Score:
Related web link:  Official Website
hits: 860
Language: eng