Ministry ‘The Squirrely Years Revisited’ Review: Al Jourgensen Makes Peace With His Synth-Pop Past

Ministry ‘The Squirrely Years Revisited’ Review: Al Jourgensen Makes Peace With His Synth-Pop Past over 40-years later on new album.

“I think I’m the only person that could probably say that they sold out before they started. I’ve hated that record for years, just on the simple principle that it’s not my record and that’s not what I signed up for.”

That’s Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen expressing his displeasure over his band’s 1983 debut album With Sympathy. The album’s genteel synth-pop sounds are a sore point for Jourgensen, his vision marred by record label interference and lack of creative control.

It is, admittedly, a curious point of origin given he would go on to become the godfather of industrial metal, abandoning his New Wave beginnings for politically minded sonic assaults on 1987’s  The Land of Rape and Honey and 1988′ The Mind is a Terrible Thing To Taste, and 1992’s Psalm 69 which was their biggest commercial success, but one done on his creatively uncompromising terms.

The group (of which Jourgensen is the sole original member) have had their highs and lows since, but they’ve been on a recent winning streak with 2021’s Moral Hygiene and last year’s Hopium For the Masses showing a renewed sense of purpose (Jourgensen is always at his best when he has a Republican president to rail against, and Trump has been a potent muse).

Ministry are back with a truly curious new release, The Squirrely Years Revisited, which finds  Jourgensen reimagining his fey, New Romantic beginnings, infusing songs off his debut album (and other early tracks) with his band’s heavier leanings, but keeping the synths in the mix.

That may sound like a dicey proposition on paper, but it’s a joyous revelation for fans who never jumped ship when the band changed their musical course, or pretend the band never  existed until Stigmata. Now we, and Jourgensen, can have our pitch black cake and eat it too.

But this isn’t Ministry simply turning all these songs up to 11 in full industrial furor, Jourgensen is more judicious in his approach. Early classics like Revenge and I’m Not An Effigy retain their pop charm, but the addition of chugging metal guitars and vocals free of the faux-British accent he employed early in his career makes for a winning combo.

The 1987 goth anthem Everyday is Halloween is augmented with metal guitar stabs, gurgling vocals and string samples, with the latter orchestral flourish imbuing the song with cinematic melodrama.

Funkier numbers like Work For Love, All Day and Here We Go retain their groove (and female backing vocals), but with an edge missing from the originals.

I’m Falling comes across like a heavier Cure track, with distorted, barked vocals and driving beat, while I’ll Do Anything For You’s doomed, dance floor romanticism is offset by a wry, vocal delivery.

The addition of new tempos, additional samples, lower registers, and an overall darker and more varied sonic palette allows the bones of the original songs to shine, but with new textures and dynamics. And while most original lyrics remain intact, the minor tweaks included are inoffensive.

Fans that purchase the album on CD get three bonus tracks, all revamps from 1986’s Twitch (Same Old Madness, Over The Shoulder and I Believe). Given that album’s harsher sound, the additions aren’t as overtly aggressive, yet offer new vibrancy.

Jourgensen has promised one more Ministry album, which will reunite him with former bassist Paul Barker. While fans salivate over what’s to come, The Squirrely Years Revisited should thrill longtime listeners who keep an open mind. Hearing these renditions live on their upcoming tour is a concert bucket list for many who never thought Ministry’s diametrically opposed musical phases would ever collide.