The Sign, Joe

sigh..........

can't believe we gotta do this again

(does he really have to do it, u may be asking yrself)

(i get it, i hate it too)

the thing where we gotta evaluate an artist's alleged moral turpitude in addition to the music

cept there ain't no "alleged" about this one

ulf ekberg was one of the founding members of ace of base

ulf ekberg is a nazi

pretty well known fact at the time and now

other ace of base members knew it

we know it now

insert argument about having no tolerance for nazis here

insert argument about how it's okay to do some light moral hand-wringing in a record review when yr talking about nazis

 

insert memories about how you listened to THE SIGN relentlessly in the mid-'90s

 

and how you didn't know anything about the nazi thing then, certainly

 

how you remember being on a playground in some shore town singing out loud with all yr cousins the lyrics to THE SIGN

 

how you not only misinterpreted the nazi thing

 

but also misinterpreted the lyrics (thinking it was "i saw the sun")

 

neither too egregious of an error for a 5yo to make

 

insert argument here about 5yo's intelligence

 

don't insert argument about how "fascinating the juxtaposition between art and artist is" at this point

 

nothing fascinating about racist skinheads

 

regardless of the music they make

 

(which was apparently explicitly racist, pre-AoB)

don't insert argument about how AoB isn't gaining anything financially from my theft of their mp3s this week either

since money is besides the point

(though, also, maybe don't give money to nazis)

it's all about what you can tolerate from an artist's past

only you can draw that line

maybe not consistently, but ive drawn that line plenty of times

chose to draw it between me and every indie rock artist who's been accused of sexual abuse in the metoo era

chose to draw it between me and mj after the doc

chose to draw it between me and ignition after r kelly's crimes were shown in their full magnitude

chose to draw it between me and fallon after finding out he's not just a shitty talk show host but also has a noted history of facilitating child molestation

chose to draw it between me and my fav baseball team when they chose to hire domestic abusers

just as some examples from the blog

ive also thought long and hard about a lot of those lines drawn

how there are shitty artists in this world but that it's not impossible to come back from that

how there's a right way to "make amends" in certain cases

how truly seldom it is that any of these assholes even try to make amends

how we dont even need to talk about that with ulf eckberg

 

how it's not even like he's done anything to actually separate himself from skinhead rhetoric

 

no apologies to the people who deserve apologies

 

no charity donations

 

there's a road to redemption for some, perhaps

 

but that road is rarely taken by people who are assholes to begin with 

ain't no coming back from supporting genocide.

i could see an argument that maybe you can still like THE SIGN despite all this

maybe

maybe you take him at his word that "that chapter of my life is over"

maybe you think that's enough to sweep under rugs

maybe you haven't considered the insane privilege it takes to be able to "close" the "chapter" of the Holocaust

or maybe you consider ulf's contributions to AoB insubstantial enough that it's okay to not place the nazi history on this particular art

note that ulf has a songwriting credit on most of these songs, including THE SIGN

 

and about the other 3 members of the band, they obviously knew too

 

brought a fucking nazi to the top of the billboard hot 100

 

as far as i know they were never nazis themselves

 

but they harbored one

 

(which is why i've drawn a line between me and kanye ever sense he donned the red hat of white supremacy)

maybe you don't give a shit

not saying that you dont give a shit about racism or genocide, i know you do

more saying that maybe you dont give a shit who creates music as long as it's good music

i'm here saying that that is your right

for real, to each their own

plenty of people dance to mj and r kelly at weddings still, after all

no judgment from me if that's your thing

i'm not even hear to convince you, honestly

im just judging myself here

and i say that i can't in good faith listen to AoB

listened to it plenty of times this week of course

(hypocrite etc. etc.)

saw it more as a funeral than a vacation

putting one good song to rest today

THE SIGN, one for the ages

written and performed by a fucking nazi

luckily, the rest of the album kinda sucks

some half-baked eurotrash bullshit

 

(though I guess now the weird dancehall shit from fellow swedes robyn and tta make more sense in retrospect)

the other two hits are fine, you know the ones

don't even come close to THE SIGN though

when you get to the grade, know that THE SIGN is doing the heavy lifting here, up from a potential 0 pukes

let the non-0 grade be a going-away gift to the music itself

and not the artists who created it

it's something i need to do

it's the "bargaining" stage, right after the "anger" stage

it's crying around the casket

even while the murderer is still on the lose

and you can still see the stab wounds on the body

and i get that u might think i'm self-righteous with this shit

v. true

i'm not gonna feel bad for being self-righteous about nazism though

who could

besides a nazi

which is def what ulf has done

 

about himself

the excuses are pathetic

as is his quote of "[AoB] strongly oppose all extremist opinions on both the right and left wing"

 

fucking bullshit right-wing rhetoric

 

as if the far-left extremism of taxing rich people and fighting climate change to address society's inequities is in any way comparable to the far-right extremist of "kill all people of color"

jfc

and all this because we like THE SIGN

disappointing that we have to let go of THE SIGN

that we have to snuff out one of the most infectious rays of pop sunshine ever

but letting go is part of the grieving process

i'm letting it go

even w/ the quasi-irony of:

"I saw the sign, and it opened up my mind
And I am happy now living without you"

i'm not happy

i'm not happy w/o THE SIGN

i'm not happy that a great song was written by a completely irredeemable musical artist

i'm not happy that AoB made me write this review in this way

i saw the sign and it opened up my eyes regarding THE SIGN

all signs point to dismissal

were we to live in a world that rewarded good people w/ musical inspiration

and penalized nazis with having musical careers that never result in an all-timer of a pop song

then maybe then id be happy

but so it goes

life goes on

fuck ace of base

and fuck me for having to air out all my grievances to you in such a disgustingly self-indulgent manner

grade: 2 pukes / 5