This is the third single culled from the Trio's album Crimson, and all the trademark elements are in place. It's a little bit punk and a little bit dark, with lyrics that compare internal turmoil to lightning storms and motorbike crashes. Naturally the words "impending doom" appear as well.
It's a pretty lacklustre effort: it ticks all the right boxes but somewhere along the line it feels like they've lost all their desire, unlike Tim Armstrong (Rancid/Transplants) who pops up to remix the track as a B-side. Stripping away any semblance of punk, he opts for a full on reggae treatment. In his hands, Burn twists into something that doesn’t feel like you've wasted two and a half minutes listening to. It's an authentic sound, so much so you'd almost expect Max Romeo to pop up at some point, put on his iron shirt up and chase the devil off the Earth.
Similarly, Sheffield's 65 Days Of Static take the song and kick it into a far more interesting shape. Their approach sails close to the likes of Matmos fighting in a bag with Black Flag, and will probably confuse the hell out of the majority of Alkaline Trio's fans. To these ears they breathe life into a fairly ordinary song, but then again 65 Days' album The Fall Of Math seems to be permanently lodged in my CD player.
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