Linq
Album: Disconnected
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.linqmusic.com

I don't know what I was expecting when I lined up the laser to "Disconnected", but I don't think it was an album quite as political as this one. Linq are a new band to me, but on the strength of this album, they are one that I intend to discover more of.

"Disconnect" is an album that takes lack of engagement as its theme. That's the most obvious with the title track, but having made that point predominantly by looking at the strange isolation that cyber, via games and social networks, for example, have brought about, interaction through device rather than through social, face to face interaction.

Other parts of the album look at other disconnections, though often in a far more subtle way, the opening track of the album, "Seneca Falls To Selma", looks at the disconnection from the political process, by highlighting all the activities that brought about most of the rights that we seem to enjoy today, but seem in danger of letting them walk from our lives unchallenged because we've allowed the political classes to bring about the failure of democracy through disenchantment.

Other songs have more of a family perspective, how individuals can be isolated within a family or culture because of their gender or cultural values. As with the rest of the album, it does this against a country rock sound often more associated with more god-fearing values. It's a great juxtaposition.

If that makes "Disconnect" sound a little harsh, well actually it is, but it's also incredibly well performed. Linq have a great sound, one that would easily find themselves with a shedload of time on country radio, if it wasn't for the content.

If you do have the ability to switch yourself off to content, "Disconnect" is actually quite a good album to drive to, but in doing so you would be cutting yourself from some really hard hitting content, great to find such an unexpected political album, that draws on the heritage of the protest movement and tries to bring it to contemporary themes, recommended.

Neil King