It's typically symptomatic of the actions of an industry in downturn, but this writer was personally disappointed when THE BUZZCOCKS former label EMI felt it necessary to tag a Greatest Hits CD onto the band's last (and vastly under-rated) album "Modern" around the turn of 2000. The thinly-disguised thinking being that they couldn't draw attention with new material.
Which is a great pity, as the Buzzcocks' contined existence is one of the few reformations that isn't creatively bankrupt, and - now hitched to quality indie Cherry Red after the interest rekindled by last year's Pete Shelley/ Howard Devoto collaboration "Buzzkunst" - they've taken advantage by turning in their most consistent set for years.
"Modern" was a good album, but "Buzzcocks" is thankfully devoid of the iffy experimentation that blighted songs like "Doesn't Mean Anything", instead opting to go for the jugular with a stream of short, sharp songs chocka with the sort of irresisitible hooks that made Punk a force in the north initially.
Philip Barker's drums batter out an "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"-style tattoo and when Peter Shelley's peeled off one of those great, weedy guitar breaks before he's even sung a note on fine opener "Jerk", things are already looking good. Shelley's still (thankfully) lovelorn and depressed during the cruise control brilliance of "Keep On" and when Steve Diggle's maniacally good "Wake Up Call" smashes into focus you suspect this is gonna be vintage 'Cocks. Even though the main riff on the latter oddly mirrors The Rezillos' "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight." Ooyah! Suits you sirs!
Hearteningly, most of what follows in the slipstream retains the momentum. Several classic Buzzcocks sonic devices are utilised, like the "Something's Gone Wrong Again" -style flange overload that drops into the middle of "Driving You Insane"; or the ace, stereo panning on the anthemic "Sick City Sometimes", or the cute, "Time's Up"-style call'n'response bits on "Lester Sands."
|
This latter is one of two further Shelley/ Devoto collaborations, and it's one of the hardest things here. The other ( "Stars") is not entirely dissimilar to "Love Battery", but is by no means a pale facsimile, featuring the controversial "A sexistic boy having a world wide wank, he says well, that's very punk of me" lyric, among several other excellent lines.
OK, so it's not as groundbreaking as Buzzcocks have been in the past, but when even songs like Shelley's ho-hum "Morning After" and Diggle's predictable "Up For The Crack" can get by on sheer energy and cheek and come up smelling magnificently of roses, then it's obvious that things are far lovelier in Buzzcocks' garden than by rights they should be after all this time.
It's not fair to describe "Buzzcocks" as a return to form, as - if you'd bothered staying tuned in - you'd have noticed they never really went off the boil anyway. Never fallen out of love with someone you shouldn't have? Good, as "Buzzcocks" more than rewards your continuing devotion.
|
