Canon in Miniature #182

Minor Threat Out of Step

1984; Dischord

Maybe Minor Threat knew that their final EP – well, except for the posthumously released Salad Days but we generally ignore that anyway don’t we? – would wind up as their least well received when they released it. I mean, the album’s presentation is that of the black sheep, the one individual within a group that never quite fits in fully despite bearing many of the same qualities its surroundings; that alone suggests that the band had some inkling that their fan base might not take this slight change in their sound all that well. While I don’t know how it was received at the time what with the whole not being born yet, but its reputation seems to be the most divisive of Minor Threat’s trio of EPs; plenty of people love it, but just as many seem to mourn the band’s turn towards the accessible and the loss of their youthful fury. I tend to fall more into the former camp, but I can see the latter’ point; this sounds a bit more like a Fugazi EP than a Minor Threat one despite the overt hardcore lean. The speeds are slower, the songs are more bass-driven, longer and less indignant. It’s a different look but in my eyes it really suits them, if only because there’s some lip service paid to the fact that the band is maturing.

Minor Threat couldn’t have kept making stuff like their first few releases forever is what I’m saying. Hardcore is a young person’s game, especially in tis most straightforward form, and as bands grow up it only makes sense that they will start to calm down and shed some of their youthful abandon. Out of Step is as good an illustration of this phenomenon as anything I’ve heard, and truth be told the results occasionally fare better than the best stuff on the band’s previous outings. The more heavily melodic bent that the songs take on is a welcome change from the ceaseless bludgeoning of the debut, and the clearer mix makes the band’s strengths as players (and MacKaye’s strength as a lyricist) shine through brighter than they could in the past. These are changes for the better as far I’m concerned even if they’re not exactly the most subtle of changes to the band’s DNA.

The resulting EP still isn’t great, mind you. Sure, the A-side is one of the band’s best stretches of material, and both “Little Friend” and “No Reason” help to bolster the other side’s slight dip in quality, but there’s inconsistency to contend with, one factor that the previous outings had in spades. Occasionally the songs fall flat – I appreciate the idea behind “Cashing In” a lot more than its execution for example, and “Sob Story” is just a non-starter – and MacKaye’s second go at codifying the straight edge lifestyle is just as clumsy as “Straight Edge” was years earlier, but on the whole Out of Step is an album that needed to be made by this band. They needed to demonstrate that they could move beyond their roots and do it fairly well. They needed to make adjustments to their sound to avoid stagnation. The result is an EP that some might find easier to respect than to actually enjoy, but as a symbol of progress it’s difficult to judge it too harshly. [7.1]