Emma Goldman - all you are is we

Zegema Beach Records

Have you ever had a panic attack while at work in the service industry? It’s the worst shit in the world. At the restaurants I worked at in college, I battled panic attacks from the moment I woke up until I collapsed back in my bed. I put on my fake fuck smile and laughed at customer’s degrading jokes in the hopes they’d bump my tip.

Emma Goldman’s (yes, named after the famed anarchist philosopher) debut LP, all you are is we is that feeling. Written from the perspective of everyone who has had their humanity questioned because of their job or because of their struggles with mental health or addiction, all you are is we is the kind of screamo that rubs your face in the mess we’re in. 

Take “I seem to be an adjective” for example; the dueling vocals confront you with stereotypes about the lives of people addicted to drugs played out over double kick drums, only to end with the shriek of unity, “We’re people.” It’s thrilling to listen to on a musical level and forces listeners to question their internalized feelings about people with addictions. 

This record is also bracing for how funny it is, like how on “it rubs the boycott ketchup on its brand new slacks” vocalist Victoria Brindise screams, “he’s got the kind of slacks that screams disenfranchisement” about someone with the “revolutionary dance moves that academic Marxists can’t even dream of.” I’d list out more of the best punchlines, but I don’t want to diminish the impact hearing them for the first time has. The last thing I’ll say on the subject is that I recommend keeping the lyrics sheet up during “we’re corporatizing polyamory” because I don’t want you to miss a thing. 

Woven throughout the panic-chord-stricken songs are brilliant digressions into breakcore, like on “canned response,” which reminds me of the moments in Soul Glo’s live show when they start hitting the sample pad, turning their hardcore set into a club night. 

When the record ends on “bellinis at the blockade” with gang vocals chanting the record's title, it’s a reminder that we don’t have to put up with panic attacks to go to work or dehumanize people struggling with addictions. This system only sustains because we let it, let all you are is we be the propaganda of the deed that inspires you to stop it.