Bosstones remain distant from ska sound, close to spirit

Nobody in The Mighty Mighty Bosstones can say it's always been an issue-oriented band.

And as much as the members insist that they have been, there's always going to be fans who remember the first two albums in which almost every song was about drinking.

But some of those songs addressed broader subjects through the blur of drunkenness. Granted, there were a couple of songs that showed some interest in social problems and gave them notice.

Now, on the Bosstones' fifth full-length release, the group's gradually-evolving social-concerns campaign is at the forefront. The title track, "Let's Face It," is the most overt declaration of war on discrimination the band has ever made.

But then again, when the Bosstones sing "Be racist, be sexist, be bigots, be sure -- we won't stand for your hate," it leads one to think, "Do they really have any choice?"

Once, they were hailed as the harbingers of a new era of ska-punk fusion. Now, they are resented as the instigators of what is not only an annoying trend, but also the latest link in a long chain of predominantly white artists profiting off of musical styles established by black culture.

It seems that in order to maintain any degree of freshness and legitimacy, the Bosstones need to reestablish the roots of their ska influence. Much of the original Jamaican ska movement was about protest and liberty from oppression. While the Bosstones initially picked up on the ska sound out of reverence, the band inadvertently has contributed to yet another cultural rip-off.

So they're giving it back.

On Let's Face It, almost every song, in one way or another, directly addresses some form of social injustice. One of the finest tracks, "The Impression That I Get," was recently borrowed for the Safe and Sound compilation, a benefit album to fight violence against women in Boston.

Even "Another Drinkin' Song" deals with alcohol in a slightly deeper, more reflective sense -- addressing the disease element of alcoholism and also the retreat people make to drunken states to escape societal problems.

But if the ska-pop world has been reduced to a stick of bubble gum, "Royal Oil" is the song in which the Bosstones spit it out. While the lyrics deal with the trite but ever-present problem of drug abuse, the music is the closest the band has come to authentic, traditional ska since it covered Bob Marley and the Wailers' "Simmer Down."

The bottom line is that the Bosstones have broadened out. They've never been a true ska band, and that's the way they like it. What they have been is a ska-influenced pop band, and now they're paying their dues for that influence.

And although the band members have broadened out, they have not sold out. All the songs on Let's Face It are little more than increasingly sophisticated variations of the same style. Now, a lot of bands do that, and heckling skeptics cry boredom. What makes the Bosstones unique is they can play the same song over and over again and still make it sound fresh.

Sure, "genius" bands such as U2 are somehow able to brilliantly revolutionize their style with each album, but it takes another kind of genius -- a very special kind -- to exempt itself from drastic evolution by continuing to write songs that are just plain good.