The Intelligent Design of Joan of Arc eschews transcriptions of song lyrics in favor of Dr. Laurence Britt’s outline of the “14 Points of Fascism.” Of course, this text has nothing to do with the actual music. Joan of Arc tends to put potential listeners off with stunts like this — nonsensical liner notes, absurd spoken-word tracks, or long song titles peppered with an excess of contrived homonyms. One might guess that a band usually too divisive for their own good would be at their worst on this, a chronological compilation of tracks that are ostensibly too weird for their albums, but in actuality, this stuff’s really no weirder than anything the band has ever put out. Early on, Kinsella writes stupid, lyrics, can’t sing for shit, and his band too often slips into aimless, freeform art-rock. But thelater days see real, solid songs take hold — still over-the-top, but sometimes enough to come across as surprisingly enjoyable.
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