If someone were to ask me the preposterous question, “Which living person besides yourself would you like to be for a day?” I might answer “Benedek Szabó, the songwriter and lead singer (and keyboardist and rhythm guitarist) of Galaxisok.” In between two band practices (Galaxisok and Cz.K. Sebő) and a concert at the Gólya, I’d don a long sweater-coat and walk wistfully through little-known streets, stopping in a favorite café to read my dog-eared volume of Cheever.
The question’s a boondoggle, though: first of all, minds and souls are not tourist destinations. You can’t “be a person for a day” without having been that person from birth. It takes commitment just to be yourself. Also, even if it were possible to switch for a day, I would have to give up being myself for that interval, so I wouldn’t “experience” being that other person at all. Third, I don’t know him beyond a fraction of his public persona, which isn’t fixed. What we show changes over time, sometimes abruptly. For everything said, sung, and shown, there is much more held back, any of which might one day burst out. This all goes to say that the new Galaxisok album, Ellenszélben, breaks from the earlier Galaxisok opus. It’s a political album. And it’s great.
Szabó is wary of political songs for a good reason: they’re often mediocre. Once you have a “statement” in mind, you risk dogmatism, even stupidity. But according to an interview with Recorder, he realized last year, after reading Ursula Le Guin’s The Word for World Is Forest, that he didn’t have to be clever and subtle all the time; if he was raging, he could rage in the music too. If you’ve had enough of a situation for fourteen years, then go ahead, let yourself rage, let yourself be a demagogue for a while. He had written many such songs before—the album A legszebb éveink (Our Most Beautiful Years), released in 2015, replaced what would have been a protest album.
There’s a time for not writing political songs. For Galaxisok, it has been more than a decade. I love the musical forms and styles, the storytelling, the wry humor, the dark delight of the previous albums. But then the time comes for the risk.
The title (and title song) of the new album, Ellenszélben, can be translated as “In a Headwind,” “In the Headwind,” “Against the Wind,” or otherwise, but in any case, it immediately suggests opposition to current trends. Minkett ne szeress! (2023) already heads in this direction, but Ellenszélben breaks through the barriers. There’s a raw musical purity to it: it isn’t as stylized as the previous albums, but it’s gorgeous, every instrument, every voice, every hook and beat taking part. You can listen to it just for the music, and listen again and again. You’ll have favorites. You’ll change favorites. But the lyrics are the revelation here, and Szabó’s own words about them. He makes no bones about it: these are anti-government songs. (Not anti-government in general, but in opposition to the current Hungarian government.)
The opening song, “Konszolidáció” (‘Consolidation’), bursts into sparkling, thrashing guitar, slightly reminiscent of Hüsker Dü. The song mocks one of the long-term buzzwords of the Fidesz government. Here’s a rough translation:
They cut down the trees and drained the whole pond,
but still it’ll be good for us,
the field is gone, we watch their backs from afar,
but still it’ll be good for us.We don’t even take in the horror news.
Oooh, consolidation!
Oooh, consolidation!We clap for the thing
that’ll kill us in the end,
yes this is good for us!We have no more friends,
but hey, we never wanted them,
yes this is good for us!We don’t even take in the horror news.
Oooh, consolidation!
Oooh, consolidation!
Oooh, look out, consolidation!
Oooh, consolidation!
The next song, the title song, has a cheerier, more relaxed sound (a little like early R.E.M., I think), but don’t let that fool you: the song is one of the darkest on the album. The word “Ellenszélben” has multiple interpretations as well as translations, but I take the song at least partly as a rebuke of the government’s hostility toward the West and alliances with Eastern nations (such as Russia and China). It’s also more generally about the increasingly ugly atmosphere: restrictions, hostility, lack of recourse.
The third song, “Fekete póló” (‘Black T-shirt’) is quite direct: as I understand it, it criticizes the sort of person who shuts himself off from anyone who disagrees with him. I think there could be a subtle allusion here to a certain politician who in 2009 was caught speeding in a black Audi down the M7 highway—but I the song is more about an attitude than a specific person. In the Recorder interview, Szabó says that it’s about the “I’m a Hungarian, not a tourist” type of person: that is, someone with a hostile sort of patriotism. The song mentions a “black t-shirt with white letters”; I don’t know what it is—maybe a particular t-shirt with a slogan. Musically the song is thrilling: simple, very singable, but full of interesting changes and guitar sounds. Here’s a rough translation of the beginning:
You’re scared of everything that’s unlike you,
but what you’re like, you haven’t the slightest clue.
Whatever you’re scared of, you want to hurt,
so you take a box and shut up the world..What you don’t grasp, better if there’s none,
whoever doesn’t get you had better be gone.
In a black car you step on the pedal,
yours is the highway, yours is the era.I don’t want us to get in a tiff,
but it hurts you that I even exist.
I keep looking for something we have in common,
maybe it’s tiny, but there must be something.
I won’t take you song by song through the album, partly because the songs are new to me and I need time for them to sink in. But one of my favorites right now is “Magasugrás” (‘High Jump’), which to me has a trace of Felső Tízezer’s “Minden/semmi,” both musically and thematically. It’s simultaneously pessimistic and optimistic, and the sound is stunning.
Another favorite is “Az oroszlán” (‘The Lion.) But enough of my favorites; listen to the album for yourself! I want to reflect a little more on what Galaxisok has done here. This is the first time here in Hungary that I have seen someone release an album of protest and tell the press that yes, that’s exactly what it is, an anti-government album. I imagine other musicians and bands have done similarly, but I’m not aware of them.
I can understand why Szabó chose to do this now. Not only was it simmering, but, as he mentions in the interview, the political climate has worsened here over the past couple of years. I sense this too. Everywhere I go, I see enormous anti-EU propaganda posters. One of their messages: “99% NEM a Genderpropagandára. Nem táncolunk úgy, ahogy Brusszel fütyül.” (“99% NO to Gender Propaganda. We won’t dance the way Brussels whistles.”) Not only is this a vast oversimplification of the issues at hand (note: the opposition’s billboards are quite simplistic too), but its hostility to the EU leaves me wondering: if not the EU, then what? Is the Hungarian government contemplating an alliance with Russia?*
The Hungarian government has also been stepping up its anti-U.S. and anti-NATO rhetoric. It has taken a more xenophobic tack in general: groups that receive funding from the abroad. (especially for political or media purposes) are treated as suspect. A new law was passed that calls for punishment of certain interactions between Hungarians and foreign individuals and organizations. An Office for the Defense of Sovereignty has been created, whose purpose is to monitor and report suspicious interactions. This law is mostly aimed at groups allegedly trying to influence elections—but an NGO close to the government, bolstered by the new law, has already accused the media outlet Átlátszó of foreign interference.
Left-wing and liberal dogmatism is as destructive as its right-wing counterparts. Still, with all its problems and excesses, the liberal West has a few fundamentals that I hold dear: the concept that those who are different from us might have something to teach us; the concept that freedom of expression and opinion should be protected, except where they do clear harm to others; and the concept that a certain spirit of protest, taking different forms at different times, keeps us alive.
Thank you, Galaxisok, for this album.
I made some edits, corrections, and additions to this piece after posting it.
*Billboards are by nature simplistic. But when they reduce complex problems to the conniving of a single instigator or enemy, they go beyond being just billboards; they affect the political and social climate of a country. This is true whether they come from the right, left, or middle.
For more about Galaxisok, see this earlier post, as well as this one.
Take Away the Takeaway 
Bob Shepherd
/ March 23, 2024xoxoxo