Covert Contracts

Control Top: Covert Contracts

The first album from Philadelphia’s Control Top works with brutal efficiency. Taking cues from the insistent rhythms of the Slits and the bright riffs of new wave, the trio’s strident yet melodic post-punk is an antidote for anyone feeling oppressed, exhausted, or just plain stultified by modern life under a capitalist patriarchy. Bassist/singer Ali Carter’s lyrics fuel the kind of motivating anger that cuts through political disillusionment with surgical sharpness: “We’re in a black hole/Of our own making,” she screams on “Black Hole.” “We have solutions/Yet no one’s debating.” The point of Covert Contracts isn’t that Control Top have all the answers, it’s that they know something is very wrong—and they’re willing to stay pissed about it. –Anna Gaca