Track Review: Get a Gun // Carl Barat and The Jackals

The Jackals have returned. Not with a comeback single as we might have guessed, but with a track release relevant to this current political atmosphere in which we are all quite tense.

‘Get a Gun’ is a lost track, found in the face of a political dissonance – one that is all too loud. When there seems to be no one trustworthy enough to listen to, why not silence the cacophony with such a temporally engaged song? The refined riffs illuminate the fact that there are few of us who could predict the future. Its concern for the current state of the world is pervasive in the sincerity behind Barat’s wearisome vocal. The lyrical weight seems most heavy when Barat sings, “They’ll shoot you down like meat”. The Jackals’ strategic choice of artwork – the demagogue himself – makes the track seem that much more ominous.

But we must remember that ‘Get a Gun’ is not a regretful elegy for a world that has lost power. The Jackals remind us of our agency to get that gun: to resist against those trying to shoot us down. There is an alternative to holding our hands up in passive surrender. What this song calls for is a new attitude. I’m not asking for a revolution, but maybe after witnessing the unimaginable become reality after the Presidential election, it is time to realise that we can make a change. After all, 46.6% of Americans didn’t use their right to vote.

‘Get a Gun’ is a stripped back, honest reminder that society should not forget its worth. We all have the chance to change the future, if we take it.