Editor’s Note: Welcome to Quarantainment, Vanyaland’s new series on what to watch, what to hear, and how to deal as the world engages in social distancing to combat the spread of coronavirus, or COVID-19. We’re all at home, we’re all online, and we’re all in this together. #StayTheFHome
A few days ago Bob Dylan released a new song, about 17 fucking minutes long, about the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Around the same time, London’s Bob Vylan (pronounced “Villain”) dropped a tune of their own, a 131-second rocket of raw frustrated fury that puts England’s racist trash on blast. Guess which we’re bumping?
The Bob Vylan track, a confrontational clenched fist of a fuck you to bigots called “We Live Here”, is one of the most visceral and powerful things we’ve heard in a while. The grime-punk track features heavy riffage and a speedball of hardcore, metal, and rap that serves to catapult instantly memorable bars like this: “Neighbors called me n***** / Told me to go back to my own country / Said since we arrived this place has got so ugly / But this is my fucking country / And it’s never been fucking lovely.”
Holy shit. Make way and give proper space to Bob Vylan. This is England.