When the 21st century arrived, there weren't many communist governments left. Cuba, China, and Vietnam were still communist, but formerly communist countries throughout Eastern Europe were embracing free enterprise; and the overwhelming evidence suggested that capitalism, although far from perfect, was a much, much better system than communism/socialism. Inevitably, all of these political developments would have an impact in the music world. The fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe encouraged a lot of new pop scenes to develop there, and some of those scenes favored unapologetically capitalist imagery. Polish pop of the 1990s, for example, was full of female singers who dressed like supermodels and looked like they were on their way to a trendy restaurant on Hollywood's Sunset Strip or Manhattan's Park Avenue. And the ironic thing is that while pop artists in a once-communist country like Poland seem to be going out of their way to flaunt their capitalist images and thumb their noses at the communists who used to be in power, you can still find some rock acts in Western Europe who stubbornly hold on to Marxist ideas. One of them is the (International) Noise Conspiracy, a Swedish band that pushes a very Marxist agenda on Survival Sickness. This is a band that praises Che Guevara, says it seeks to "destroy bourgeois culture" and "smash the neo-liberal agenda" (presumably, they dislike liberals because liberals are essentially capitalists). But once you get past all the tired, antiquated Marxist rhetoric, you'll find that these guys deliver some incredibly infectious, if derivative, rock & roll. Blending punk with the influence of 1960s British Invasion bands like the Kinks and the Who, the Conspiracy remind us how captivating simple, basic, groove-oriented rock & roll can be. You don't have to agree with the band's politics to find Survival Sickness hard to resist. - AMG

1. Communication Of Knowledge And Ideas
2. Poetry And Action Fused Together
3. The Creative Urge To Destroy Bourgeois Culture
4. My Heart Still Hurts From Last Night
5. Selling Of The Biggest Commodity
6. The Collective Changing Of Identity
7. A Time To Contemplate
8. True Romance
9. Smash The Neo-Liberal Agenda
10. The Joyous Sound Of Progress Or…
11. We Are All Cultural Prostitutes
12. I Woke Up In Love This Morning
13. The Celebration Of Passion And Resistance