This one comes straight from a Friend of the Crowd, with strong words of recommendation:
“The one I have on loop is Pain to Power by Maruja. Very current lyrics, crazy saxophones, and they’re really good live.”
We had heard the name before. Ana kept bringing them up. We kept doing that very professional music-person thing of saying, “Yeah, we’ll check them out,” and then absolutely not checking them out.
Then we did. And what the actual hell.
Pain to Power is now the album we play when we need sophisticated political anger.
The unsophisticated version is easy. Everything is fucked, politicians are useless, billionaires are evil. Shout that a few times over distorted guitars and there you go.
Maruja are angrier than that.
“Bloodsport” opens the album already sick of the choices we are given. Pick the lesser evil. Accept the result. Watch people become numb to violence and carry on. Harry Wilkinson delivers the words like he has been waiting all day to get them out, while the rest of the band make the whole thing feel increasingly unsafe.
“Look Down On Us” it’s almost ten minutes long and has enough inside it for a whole album: billionaires, war, Gaza, political complicity, helplessness and the very modern experience of watching all of it through a phone.
The first half is furious. The names and targets are clear. Then the song stretches out and starts reaching for something else. The saxophone, strings and repeated vocals turn the anger into a strange collective release. It doesn’t solve anything. We don’t finish the song believing Jeff Bezos has suddenly discovered wealth redistribution. It just makes being paralysed feel like the least acceptable response.
Ana was right about the current lyrics and definitely right about the crazy saxophones. Of course she was, she always is.
“Saoirse” is quieter and more open. The title means freedom in Irish, and the song keeps returning to the idea that our differences are what make us beautiful.
“Break the Tension” might still be our favourite moment. Wilkinson sounds close to delivering a manifesto while Joe Carroll’s saxophone is loud, rude and somehow completely organised.
Later, “Zaytoun”, Arabic for olive, carries an unavoidable association with Palestinian land and resilience in the context of the album. The track leaves us alone with the band for a while before “Reconcile” takes over.
Still, this is not background music.
Every song demands to be heard. Trying to answer emails while Pain to Power plays is pointless. If you want an album to quietly decorate an afternoon and your €7 latte, choose something else.
We have only seen Maruja live through YouTube, despite them having already toured Europe and played Berlin. Poor work from us, honestly. So we missed them. We won’t next time.
Thanks, Ana. Again, you were right.
Listen where you listen:
