If you manage to take your eyes of that well-endowed squirrel for a moment, I’d like to talk about a band called Ministry. No, not the industrial metal band, but rather the synth pop band. See, before Ministry was an industrial metal band drunkenly shouting Democratic Party slogans, they were a snarky industrial band that had a bone to pick with all of politics. Before they were that, they were a new wave synth pop band. Yes, really. Debut album With Sympathy is a solid synth pop album that stands the test of time for its sharply written tracks and creative use of funk- and ska-like instrumentation. Alain David Jourgensen, being a fan of the new wave synth pop scene, traveled to London and signed with Arista Records to record the debut album. Jourgensen’s original tracks leaned into a darker electronic sound, which can be heard in the pre-debut singles collected in the Twelve Inch Singles compilation, but were apparently watered down by executives of Arista Records trying to make it appeal more to fans of the genre. Because of this, With Sympathy is wrought with tension between a creative’s wishes and label executives meddling. You can hear this tension in Jourgensen‘s angry vocal delivery, adopted British accent, and the clean, synth-driven production. Jourgensen‘s experience of this label meddling, although contested by former band mates, was so bad that he left Arista Records and England, disowning the album for decades. That is, until his current band mates recently played the album to him while he was high on mushrooms, and he watched a show with a Ministry cover band playing the album live. Now softening on the album, Jourgensen decided to re-record some tracks from the first era of the band, leading us to that throbbing squirrel up there.
The Squirrely Years Revisited is a compilation of re-recorded tracks: four from With Sympathy, a few stand-alone singles, and three tracks from sophomore album Twitch. On Twitch, the band had already gone toward a darker middle ground between broody industrial and up-beat refrains, but were still far from the aggressive sound they would become known for with albums such as ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ (Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs), and the Bush-trilogy of albums. What era of Ministry we’d get on The Squirrely Years Revisited was a question hanging heavily in the air when Jourgensen announced it. Would he try to reclaim the darker electronic sound the songs were meant to have, or would he opt for a heavier metal interpretation? The result turns out to be neither of those, as The Squirrely Years Revisited features stadium rock-oriented versions of the synth pop songs. This makes more sense than metal would, but it also places these re-recordings much closer to the originals. Despite electric guitar featuring on With Sympathy, it wasn’t a prominent element. The Squirrely versions lifts up the guitar, bass and drums to serve as the center of most songs, a move that makes sense with the context of the current live rendition of Ministry as a band. Songs are more dynamic now, making modest adjustments and sticking close to the original compositions and moods, the drums being the element of the music that grounds the heavier drum machine-based originals from Twitch and Twelve Inch Singles. Jourgensen‘s vocals sound typical for the band’s metal era, but with more humor driving the performance than force, and thankfully he opted out of replicating the British accent. It worked in the day, but would now have sounded off. Ministry haven’t sounded this relaxed and loose in a long time. That bulging rodent must have had a good time post camera shoot.
As with all re-recording of old material, you have to ask yourself “Who is this for?”. Clearly, it must have been cathartic for Jourgensen to reclaim control over these songs, whether the effect is psychological or not. For fans who know squirrely dick about the band before they went more metal, these renditions of the tracks are good introductions to a Ministry who liked to have fun, less in the iron grip of the 24 hour news cycle. Personally, as a long time fan, it made me finally give With Sympathy a proper chance, and made me realize that the early years of Ministry contain some of my favorite work the band has put out. These songs stand the test of time. I might not prefer these new renditions over the original albums, British accent and all, but it seems a worthwhile stop before Jourgensen works on the final Ministry album with Paul Barker finally returning to the band, though who knows what final means to an addictive personality. As long he doesn’t call it “Deez Nutz” or something stupid like Amerikkkant. Jourgensen would never. Right?
