Greetings, Spirit of Cecilia readers! Brad Birzer and Tad Wert have been impressed with the music of Norway’s Airbag. They combine excellent, Pink Floyd-adjacent melodies with thought-provoking lyrics. In the summer of 2024, they released their sixth studio album, The Century of the Self, which was one of the best albums of that year. Brad and Tad finally get around to discussing its merits – better late than never!

Tad: Brad, I absolutely adored Airbag’s previous album,  A Day at the Beach, and the lead-off track, Machines and Men, is one of the best songs they’ve ever done. Now that they’ve followed up that triumph with The Century of the Self, what strikes you right off the bat with that album?

Brad: Thanks so much, Tad.  It’s great–as always–to be reviewing with you.  Yes, I very much love and admire Airbag, and I have from their beginning, whether on Kscope (briefly) or Karisma.  They confirm what I’ve thought for ages, that is, a prog band is only as good as its bassist.  Great guitarist, too.  Great drummer as well.  Love the keyboards, too.  So, win-win-win-win.  What a great band.  An amazing band.  I had to throw “amazing” into the mix, as I’ve typed “great” one too many times!

Granted, they wear their Pink Floyd love on their sleeves, but, frankly, I think that makes them even better.  Very glad to have some Floydian music still being produced.  And, yet, whatever the Floyd influence, it serves as an inspiration for the band.  They’re not enslaved to it, but inspired by it.  Strangely and perhaps paradoxically, the Floydian influence makes Airbag even more unique.

I didn’t realize they were already on their sixth album.  Given their sheer output, as well as the solo output of Bjorn Riis, I find the music even more astounding.

So, what strikes me right off the bat?  An excellent question, Tad.  After having listened to the album a half a dozen times, I’m struck by two things.  The bass and the lyrics.  Both, extremely courageous.  How about you?

Tad: Brad, you and I agree that a good bassist is essential to a prog band. I think of what Yes might be without Chris Squire, and it would never have been as groundbreaking and influential as it ended up. Or how about Steve Babb’s work with Glass Hammer? He is the key to that group’s greatness.

Along the same lines, Anders Hovdan does a terrific job anchoring Airbag’s music. A lot of their songs take time to fully develop, and Hovdan’s insistent bass lines provide interest for the listener. I love the way the entire group take their time building up a song. They often start out quietly, and they inexorably build in energy and sound until there is a most satisfying release. Their melodies are not overly complex or complicated, but I would certainly classify them as “progressive rock.

That said, I think Bjorn Riis (guitars and vocals) seems to be the main driver of Airbag. His songs always intrigue me. I’ve told you before that I have to like a song’s melody before I worry about the lyrics, but when I first heard the opening track on The Century of Self, I was immediately struck by the lyrics. They’re brief enough to share in their entirety:

Did you come here to find some peace and hide?
Too much confusion in your head at times
Don’t want to bend, conform, you’ll never obey
Don’t want no part of this conspiracy

I see these people keeping their heads down
Denying everything they used to be
Don’t try to touch, don’t ever get too close
They’ll make you suffer and they’ll make you bleed

Who do you feel you are today?
Who will you crucify and slay?
It’s driving me insane

Did you believe they’d ever let you go?
There is no escape, there is no turning back
You’re canceled now, they’ll cancel everything
They’ll make us suffer and they’ll make us bleed

Who do you feel you are today?
Who will you crucify and slay?
It’s driving me insane

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/airbag/dysphoria

Brad, it seems to me this is a protest against the illiberalism of contemporary “cancel culture”, and that is a brave stand to take these days! So, I went back and looked through some of their previous songs, and there is definitely a consistent streak of individualism and a plea for personal freedom running through them. I think they are today’s version of a countercultural music group, and I admire them for that. I am really interested in your thoughts on their lyrics, since you are able to uncover deeper meaning from them than I usually do!

Brad: Yes, I totally agree, Tad.  There’s something quite special in Airbag’s lyrics that call out for us to be more individual than we’re comfortably being in the current morass of society.  I think Airbag is definitely protesting against the loss of free speech and free ideas that seems to have spread throughout Europe and the western world (America is not excluded).  I suppose part of this is my age, but it’s hard not to look back at the 1980s and especially 1989 as a golden era in western civilization.  Not only were we growing economically, but free societies were trouncing unfree societies.  Despotisms and authoritarianism and totalitarianism were on the run.  A pope and a president were beating the life out of them.  Now, we sit in silence as our “betters” tell us what to do and what not to do.  I wouldn’t have necessarily have expected protest to arise from Norway, but amen.  

Those lyrics are worth repeating, Tad:

Did you believe they’d ever let you go?
There is no escape, there is no turning back
You’re canceled now, they’ll cancel everything
They’ll make us suffer and they’ll make us bleed

And, then, of course, we’re not guiltless:  

Who do you feel you are today?
Who will you crucify and slay?
It’s driving me insane.

Track two, “Tyrants and Kings” continues the libertarian themes:

Join the cause
Say no to everything we fear
Get used to lying
You’re a prisoner now
Take no stand
There are no sides there’s only ours
You shoot to kill
You’re a soldier now

The “get used to lying” line brings to mind Solzhenitsyn’s note that all totalitarianism is built on lies.  The huge lie of the society and all the little lies that one must employ to survive.

Looking through the lyrics of the remaining three songs, they too speak to the loss of individual dignity.

So, bravo, Airbag!  Keep fighting the good fight.  And, thanks, too, for the killer bass lines.

Tad: Brad, thank you for highlighting the lyrics to “Tyrants and Kings”! Yes, Airbag is a band that appeals to me both in musical terms and lyrical ones. That is quite rare these days. And, like you, I’m impressed these Norwegians are reminding the rest of us what is truly important. 

So, gentle reader, if you are interested in excellent progressive rock with a Floydian flavor, and highly literate lyrics, do yourself a favor and check out Airbag’s latest album, The Century of the Self. You won’t be disappointed!