Renegades

Rage Against the Machine ran out of musical ideas about halfway through their first album, but they’ve kicked up enough righteous, adrenaline-fueled racket since then to keep our blood boiling. Renegades, which looks to be their swan song behind lead commandant Zack de la Rocha (who quit the band a few weeks ago), is an album of covers which shows their unparalleled ability to make songs as diverse as Eric B. and Rakim’s “Microphone Fiend,” Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and the Stooges’ “Down on the Street” all sound exactly the same. It’s a dubious accomplishment, but a few songs here do stretch Rage beyond their known borders. They inject a little electro-strut into the Stones’ “Street Fighting Man,” and there’s unbelievable menace to their subdued take on Devo’s “Beautiful World,” as De la Rocha finally realizes a whisper can resonate much louder than a scream. Unfortunately, most of the rest of Renegades just confirms what Zack apparently knew: this machine is out of creative fuel.