Review by Tom Hersey

Few know Flip­per out­side of that shirt Kurt Cobain was famously pho­tographed wear­ing. How­ever, the influ­ence the San Fran­cisco sludge punk act exerted on alter­na­tive music is unde­ni­ably recog­nis­able. The pre­cur­sor to bands like latter-day Black Flag and the Melvins, in the ‘70s and ‘80s Flip­per helped cre­ate the fab­ric of mod­ern day alt-rock. Their first stu­dio album since 1993’s Amer­i­can Grafishy, Love sees Flip­per cap­ture all the irony, anger and urgency of their first two sem­i­nal albums. Accom­pa­nied by Fight, a disc recorded live by Jack Endino fea­tur­ing some of the band’s clas­sic mate­r­ial, Love is another Flip­per mas­ter­piece. Inten­tional or oth­er­wise, the album has an endear­ing under­cur­rent of dark, ironic humour. The band has been play­ing for 30-plus years, yet hark the open­ing line to Be Good, Child! – “Grow­ing up is hard, in this tough, old world”. Lyri­cally, Love is a refresh­ing return to the glory days of the Dead Kennedys and The Min­ute­men. The riffs on Why Can’t You See Me and Old Graves are uncom­fort­ably slow and depres­sive, ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic’s low end offer­ing a superb accom­pa­ni­ment to Ted Falconi’s gui­tar. Like the patented sludge sound Flip­per fash­ioned for them­selves back in the day, Love is bleak, imper­sonal and phys­i­cally drain­ing to lis­ten to. In spite of the aural nui­sance Flip­per cre­ate, or per­haps because of it, Love is a piece of art that will res­onate strongly with Flip­per fans of old and fans of alt-rock dis­cov­er­ing some­thing new that feels genuine.