New Model Army - From Here
The music is the classic NMA mix of punk, post-punk, folk, metal and soul but is also thoroughly contemporary and timeless
I can remember when I first heard New Model Army: 2nd May 1985, a council house lounge, NMA playing No Rest on Top of the Pops. My gran comments disgustedly at their look and sound but I’m enthralled by their rags and rage. It genuinely changed my life.
Although NMA never achieved huge chart success they became - and remain - a massive cult band with a huge army of fans hitching the length and breadth of the UK and Europe to see them.
Although recent LPs have been strong, I sit down to review this 15th studio LP with trepidation. No, this doesn’t induce the visceral response that Vengeance or No Rest may have done but it is their best album in three decades. The lyrics revisit past subjects but from a modern viewpoint. The music is the classic NMA mix of punk, post-punk, folk, metal and soul but is also thoroughly contemporary and timeless. End of Days is driving but melancholic. Great Disguise is darkly rhythmic, tribal and danceable. Tough, angry rocker Watch and Learn builds to a gloriously dissonant climax. The muscular, heavy Maps is more avant-garde/modern classical than rock.
This will satisfy long term NMA fans but there is plenty here to entice and enthral newbies.
9.5/10
