Buzzcocks

Perhaps Buzzcocks fans should have been alerted by Pete Shelley's exceptional duo with original Buzzcocks leader Howard Devoto last year. He even does his own take here of a song from that great CD.

But this is most definitely a Buzzcocks release, and it's the best since 1986's "All Set", especially in light of the disappointing "Modern" from 1999.

Since returning from oblivion in the early 1990s, Pete and Steve Diggle have taken a Lennon-McCartney approach to their recorded work. They now share equally in the writing, and Steve's work is every bit the equal of Pete's, in terms of quantity and quality.

"Buzzcocks" is the work where Shelley and Diggle hit peak form together for the first time - Shelley's songs dominated "All Set."

Everything you love about the Buzzcocks is here, and it is the best quality recording of all four of their second period efforts.

Since reforming the band has been a great live attraction. With "Buzzcocks" they have finally harnessed the power and excitment of their live performances in the studio.

A great CD from a great band.

That's not a bad thing per se, particularly when a band reforms and comes up with material at least as good as its old stuff (New Order, King Crimson, Wire). Most of the time, of course, it's the other way around (Television, Soft Boys, Spinal Tap).

It would be somewhat unreasonable to demand that any band, including today's Buzzcocks, come up with tunes as good as the ones that cover the seminal Singles Going Steady, as well as Another Music In a Different Kitchen and Love Bites. However, even if we don't demand it, their absence leaves me wanting. While 1999's All Set came closer, none of the band's reunion records provided a genuine return to form.

The new disc on the venerable Merge label is titled Buzzcocks, implying that the music therein is definitive and quintessential. Don't be misled, but don't be prohibitively cynical either. This is an absolutely satisfying listen and a feat of songwriting that few acts could match. Additionally, the old geezers haven't diluted their mission with jazz session players or choral arrangements, like Sting or his old fart comrades.

Instead, original members Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle have the good sense to divide the writing equally, keep 12 songs under 35 minutes total, and include absolute standouts such as "Jerk," "Certain Move" and "Sick City Sometimes." Also included are two numbers Shelley co-wrote with original Buzzcock Howard Devoto, who left the band in 1976. "Lester Sands" is a leftover from those early days, well known to fans of the 1977 LP Time's Up or the legendary 1976 bootleg of the same name. "Stars" is a new take on "'Til the Stars In His Eyes Are Dead," a cut from last year's Shelley/Devoto collaboration, Buzzkunst.

Admittedly, the more and more advanced in age that any rock fan becomes, the more likely they are to find very cool a group of aged rockers who still rock. That said, there's enough going on here to please just about anyone.

Ric Dube
Junkmedia.org Review

These are great songs played passionately, this album has been produced to work as a whole piece, not the ragbag stop/start collection of hit/filler we have become used to from so-called chart acts. Bassist Tony Barber's production puts the guitars at the sharp end of the sonic assault. But in these heavily labelled and branded times, is it punk rock? Yes it is, but don't let that put you off. In sound, Buzzcocks reprises key moments of the band's history, right back to 1978's seminal Another Music in a Different Kitchen album. The longest song is the closing track Useless at a smidgen over four minutes. Aficionados will welcome the inclusion of a revived Lester Sands from the band's earliest days, and a storming version of Stars, which appeared on Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto's highly-regarded Buzzkunst album. Highpoints of this album are Shelley's opener Jerk, the classic-in-waiting Friends and Diggle's Sick City Sometimes, though the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is an album you'll want to play through from start to finish again and again and again.

It's a mixed-up world, these are mixed-up times. Fame has never been more transient or manufactured. How reassuring to be presented with an honest product by the finest and original exponents of the genre they invented. Power and craftsmanship - you couldn't ask for more. This is a straight-up album that slaps you about the ears and then leaves you strangely grateful for it. Old and new punks, Nu-metal youths, sk8r b0is and grrls - get out there, buy this and enjoy. Original and best.