STN Albums Of The Year 2

2 Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense
Beyond record sales, leakers etc. does Andy Falkous really have anything to prove any more? After a decade's service at the coalface of proving satirical snark and post-hardcore attack could work together without tipping into too much lightness you'd think not, but the first album of the rejigged lineup sounded like he had. While the things broadly learned from American post-hardcore of a Big Black/Shellac foundation are still there – angry low end, roaring guitar sounds, left turns that sound like the whole band breaking the sound barrier at once – they seem much more so. Slithering sea floor bass, percussive feedback, occasional evil keyboard sounds and jackhammering riffs set on levelling cities pervade while Falkous non-smug-smirkingly rails against modern culture perspective and societal complacency, taking minutiae to task as part of the bigger problem. And sometimes it chances on a neo-pop melody underneath, as if by accident-on-purpose. There's always something to pin you to the wall through sonic ferocity, always the promise of something angular suddenly making its distorted presence felt, always something incisive and intriguing in the sentiments, always righteous ire and splenetic, often absurd acerbity within intrinsic intensity. This is what they, and Falco, have always done much better than anyone else in their field.

[Amazon] [iTunes] [Spotify]