April 09, 2017

Operation: Ümlaut












(We're an underground revolution working over-time.)





Queensrÿche's 'Operation: Mindcrime' is a peculiar album in some ways. Firstly, it takes on a tone more akin to 'pop music' than previous efforts, while remaining a concept album with many sides involved. Secondly, it draws on a mode of 'dystopian' art (alluded to in Dr. X) which is conventionally associated with novels rather than music. This adaptation brings with it several 'problems,' but these are also the most interesting part of the album.

The connection to previous art is established in the title, which connects to the Orwellian term 'thoughtcrime.' However, it is slightly critical of the theme, portraying the hope of organising around 'thoughtcrime' as itself a dystopian mechanism. The title is represented further in the humorous image of Dr. X as a 'doctor,' who 'cures' with an operation. It also locates the 'dystopian' environment in the location around it, as Orwell tried with 'Ingsoc,' although it might seem more direct in this than Orwell. It attempts to locate this 'dystopia' directly, as it has a musical format that does not favour sketching outlines to the same extent. Nonetheless, it is not literature and cannot sketch out an overall story and setting as easily, and hence has to draw on literary analogues so that readers can get a sense of the context. There is some interaction with their previous album, 'Warning,' as we shall discuss soon.

However, 'dystopian' art is a peculiar genre in some ways. Despite its apparent orientation, it has to rely on the posited 'dystopian' rule and its actions for the drama, atmosphere and appeal of the novel. This is where the primary dynamic and character of the novel appears. Further, the novelist of course has freedom to manipulate characters and fictionalise things freely, so could it be that the 'dystopian' enemy is merely the author themselves? Characters have little freedom, anyway, as the novelist does what they want with them - and are doubtless aware of this 'authority' in writing the novel. In that sense, 'dystopian' non-fiction like Marx's 'Das Kapital' is generally more coherent as a style, in their case expressing a cynical take on Hegel by suggesting that their structure of transhistorical categories is actually based in the categories of the current system. Karl Marx speaks of their place in a given society, rather than instating themselves as hypothetical dictators of a fictionalised and freely manipulated society. All novels are fictions, set in fictitious places where the novelists could if they wanted have everyone walk upside down, convert to Norse religions and fly to the moon. Queensrÿche have some analogues to 'non-fiction' analogues, as they open 'in media res' and have a less clear setting, meaning that in some ways they are attempting to discuss the location surrounding them and possibly the listener.

Nonetheless, these problems take on a different form in a dramatic and musical context. This album has the challenge of making tracks which are simply an expression of the 'dystopian' actors of from their reported perspective. Hence, rather than just drawing on them, here they have to be actively portrayed, and hence allowed to promote themselves. The artists hence have to make themselves vehicles of this 'dystopian' enemy, and promote them. This renders their project ambiguous. In a more pop-directed album, these songs will also attempt to draw in people who aren't as familiar with the band, and songs 'stand-alone' rather than being like A Pleasant Shade of Gray and requiring listeners to listen through the whole thing at once. Hence, listeners might instead just get a stirring song about Dr. X and their plans, with a sing-along theme. This turns the album into something potentially slightly sinister.

One of these songs, dealing with Dr. X (possibly a snipe at Karl Marx, which despite their virtues is quite amusing), is the title track. The title itself is something that audiences are to be made enthusiastic about, but nonetheless is here a sinister plot by the good doctor. The song has a 'catchy' chorus of 'Operation: Mindcrime,' but this is actually to be stated by the sinister and manipulative Dr. X as a means of self-promotion, rendering the chorus slightly ambiguous. The track can be slightly ambiguous, then - it postures as an attempt by Dr. X to drum up enthusiasm, and seemingly is alright with this. The following tracks are also along similar lines. Hence, by that point if the audience is still getting enthusiastic about these tracks or singing along, they hence have to draw on the enthusiasm of Dr. X's manipulation and not necessarily what they would expect. The album hence turns out to be manipulative, but covertly and in some ways despite itself.

The album hence starts to take on some of the characteristics of this 'dangerous' figure, at times despite itself. This applies in other areas as well. The main character seemingly is afflicted with amnesia, but if you look more closely the somewhat invasive-sounding album title, when combined with the band name, can also sound like amnesia - Queensrÿche's 'Operation: Mindcrime.' Hence, this can all make the album sound rather sinister. It can also sound like 'Wrestlemania,' of course. The album cover involves a few strange and out-of-place symbols, along with the image of a person being  shocked by the ears - which is of course where music operates. The rest is a bunch of strange and convoluted imagery, which might seem akin to the manipulative tactics of figures in the album. It can come across as warping things slightly. Further, many of the figures are vaguely sketched - it mentions a 'revolution,' for instance, but differentiates it from the Soviet Union without precisely locating it politically. Hence, it comes across as a bunch of manipulative patterns which are given a conventional and innocuous rendering, without the rest of the story being given as much definition. Of course, an album which is also a vehicle for the 'sinister' must also attempt to convey this, and hence is rendered ambiguous. Nonetheless, this means that it can be eerie at times.

This album also interacts with their previous album, Warning. Compared to that, it takes up a more dramatic and pop-directed sound - although Warning was in this direction already. However, despite this, it is also slightly critical or cynical about that album, and gives sinister figures more space to speak and influence instead of just a hopeful resistance. While that album concerns an uprising, here the uprising is itself used as a trap. It involves people who are easily influenced, and they hence easily fall into this scheming. Violent and cynical figures intrude while the past album had hopeful but pessimistically rendered characters.

It notably says, 'Speak the word / Revolution.' 'Revolution' is an interesting word, people tend to assume that it is positive and stirring when it could denote even cynical changes or ones they would not approve of. It is often used as if it's a slogan in itself, with movements self-congratulatorily branding themselves 'revolutions.' Why? Perhaps they have listened to this album, and are so pessimistic about everything around that revolution sounds good to them. It also, as a joke recounts, resembles 'revolting,' a possibly negative epithet, so shouting the word 'revolution' as some do when drunk seems to risk an easy 'slurring' of the term. In addition, it is also a word for circular motion, which seems quite counter to the point. 'Revolution' is a word besieged by the language, which nonetheless tends to demand being shouted or accompanied with flamboyant gesturing. So expecting the word to immediately connote something stirring presupposes something of an artificial context for its usage, and indeed it is appropriate to movements with a few 'revolutions' that have been summarily disregarded by its seeming purveyors. However, this album is rather hushed about it, and the word is only whispered there. This gives it a more sinister tint on this album. Further, the figure behind the movement is quite aware of the connotation of circular motion, not necessarily intending the suggested change and using it manipulatively. When it's said, 'The word is all of us,' or that they are subsumed to the word, this also includes its various senses and the intention that their movement end in a circle. Hence, the word is slightly more significant on this album.

However, in general the instruction to speak it represents a fundamental part of this album. If it has conventional choruses and sing-along sections, these are sometimes represented as being by sinister manipulators or expressing their influence. It's like a pop album with dark, covert manipulations super-imposed on it. Due to the many contrasting things that it has to represent, it is suspended in a continual dynamic, and hence is unique and deceptively difficult to follow up on. While Queensrÿche have other, more sophisticated albums, like 'Promised Land' or 'Rage for Order,' they also draw on a sense of a mechanical or heartless society grinding people down. They hence have something in common with Mindcrime. Nonetheless, with that album cover, when things turn out convoluted and you have catchy songs about sinister plots, clearly something strange is afoot. And this is part of why Queensrÿche were often capable of putting out decent albums, in their more progressive moments.

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