Harrisons are four ex-brickies from Sheffield whose dull labouring days provide the raw material for this strident single.
Joe Strummer-ish vocals and a skanky beat inject just the right mood of defiant frustration into lyrics like “How can you dance when you’re on your own?”.
The ‘b-side’ bravely handles sensitive theme of the “cold sad death of Susie Leigh” a young woman killed in woods near Sheffield. It’s more of a protest song than a murder ballad with the lines “so hard to believe no-one heard the screams” and questions how atrocities like this have become a feature of our age.
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Given the subject matter it’s obvious why Loxley Bottoms is not the A-side but in many ways it’s a bolder, more effective track than ‘Mondays Arms’ with a air of controlled tension which builds to a rousing finale.
A third track is a largely unconvincing disco remix of the title track which shifts us from early Joy Division into Technique period New Order.
Overall a strong release from a band with a brash hard-man attitude but clearly able to rise above macho stereotypes.
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