Having made their name – and earned a place in the canon of quintessential (not to mention essential) post-punk acts, sitting comfortably alongside Manchester peers such as Joy Division – Chameleons released three landmark albums before disbanding in 1987. They resurfaced for a time at the turn of the millennium, but were dormant again until 2021, since when they’ve been keeping active as a live entity. But last year saw the arrival of a brace of EPs featuring their first new material in a very long time, and here, at long – long, long – last, we see the arrival of a new album, their first in some twenty-three years. This, then, is no small event, and doubtless one heavy with expectation.
And ‘Arctic Moon’ does not disappoint.
What’s interesting is that the album opens with a rerecording of the first track from the 2024 EPs, ‘Where Are You’. Interesting in that is reveals a band who are evolving, and rapidly, even at this stage in their career.
“There is an obvious maturity to the songwriting on this record, and anyone familiar with our past work will hear that this is a positive step forward,” says frontman/bassist Vox (aka Mark Burgess). “While we’re proud of the band’s legacy, we really wanted to forge something fresh while retaining that profound and imaginative quality we’re known for. We think that we have managed to do that and deliver a very strong record.”
Of course, there will be diehard fans who would prefer that they put out a sequel to ‘Script of the Bridge’ or ‘Strange Times’, but there’s something significantly admirable about a band who keep things fresh and make the music they want to make instead of feeling trapped or otherwise constrained by their past.
With just seven songs, ‘Arctic Moon’ is a concise album, and it feels that this is intentional. ‘Where Are You’ sets the tone here: uplifting, anthemic, uptempo, the feel is more melodic, jangly indie than stark, brooding post-punk, but there’s a wistful hue spun through the album’s entirety. The sound of ‘Lady Strange’ isn’t sad, but balances breezy with reflective.
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There are three bona fide epics, too, in the shape of the seven-minute ‘Feels Like the End of the World’, and ‘Magnolia’, and the eight-and-a-half-minute behemoth which is ‘David Bowie Takes My Hand’. The first of these arrives with lilting fiddle and a light, folky feel, but spins into darker territory in the second half, laced with grand strings and an expansive theatricality befitting of the title. And yes, right now, it very much does. The middle of these, ‘Magnolia’ is atmospheric, sultry, stealthy, and one of the album’s high points, boasting a bold chorus that burst forth from shade-cast verses.
The latter isn’t the only Bowie-inspired song in the set: the piano-led ballad, ‘Free Me’ has Bowie’s influence all over it, but ‘David Bowie Takes My Hand’ is a slow-burning and beautiful homage, and sounds like the song Suede always wanted to write.
‘Saviours Are Dangerous Things’ brings the album to a rush of a close, an while it’s not political per se, the lyrics provide some urgent commentary amidst a flurry of chiming guitar propelled by a busy bassline and some sturdy percussion.
Even in the early 80s, while capturing the zeitgeist, Chameleons stood apart as being their own band somehow. More than forty years on, they’re still doing it. And ‘Arctic Moon’ is a work of quality from beginning to end.
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