Death to Art is the seventh studio album by Australian alternative rock band TISM, released on 4 October 2024 through their own label genre.b.goode and DRW Entertainment. It is the band’s first full-length album in 20 years, since The White Albun in 2004. It is also their first studio album to feature Vladimir Lenin-McCartney as lead guitarist, as their previous lead guitarist Tokin’ Blackman passed away from lung cancer back in 2008 (who was with the band from 1991 to the band’s split in 2004). At 80 minutes and 20 seconds, it is the band’s longest studio album.
Source: Death to Art (Wikipedia)
I was intrigued as to what expect on a new TISM album in 2024, especially after Damian Cowell suggested in an interview a few years ago that “it’d be shithouse.” I liked ‘I’m Going Hillsong’ when it came out last year, but the rest left me wondering. Well, all of the initial songs released last year, including the The “C” Word EP, are all here on the album and more.
In some respects there is the same silliness as before, with tracks such as Cnut the Dyslexic King, but then there are the more cutting tracks such as I Can’t Wait for My Generation to Die. Interestingly, no new Ron diatribes, although there were a couple released last year.
One thing that needs to be said, I feel they are as innovative as ever, tying all the tracks together with a number of muzak style songs listened on the drive to Springvale Cemetery. This also brings a sense of theatre to the album.
In the end, I was left thinking about what Andrew Stafford wrote in response to Custard’s comeback album and the challenge of recapturing the past:
A comeback record was always going to be a more difficult proposition for Custard than most. That’s because a key part of the band’s appeal was an innocence that often tripped over into a playful sense of anarchy. Their early recordings, especially, are full of the exuberance and abandon that marks one’s late teens and early 20s. And anyone who’s ever grown up knows how difficult that feeling is to recapture.
Source: CUSTARD: COME BACK, ALL IS FORGIVEN -Notes from Pig City by Andrew Stafford
I am not sure TISM have the same challenge, but I am left wondering how much is stuck in nostalgia? As Stafford touches on in his review of Death to Art.
Part of the visceral thrill of TISM was their ability to make the listener uncomfortable. Theirs was a comedy of manners aimed at the most hypersensitive of targets: earnest, university-educated and snobbish indie-rock fans. We should not miss TISM’s -isms. Now we’ve grown up a bit, we might look back on our secretly tasteless, vulgar and puerile youth with a certain nostalgia.
Source: TISM: Death to Art review – rock’s satirical provocateurs have lost their darker edge by Andrew Stafford (The Guardian)
I was left thinking about Damian Cowell’s recent work and the focus of TISM to recapture the past. I have not seen TISM live, but have seen my share of videos. They clearly attract an audience, but there is something about the daggy disco music that really did it for me, especially live. Or maybe I am just overthinking this all and should stick to Hemmingway?
P.S. Maybe the real question is why is it that this album is not included in my ‘hand-picked new releases’ on Spotify? Neither is Custard’s album?