Superbly defiant and telling eighth LP, the first in in five years, by the alt-rock band who last year dropped the British part from their name, not to disrespect their own nation, but to disassociate themselves from any form of upsurging Brexit-related nationalism. The song Folly, which has musical elements of New Order and even Pet Shop Boys, reflects this in its sharp lyrics. The album’s title is inspired by Alexei Yurchak’s 2005 book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, charting the decline of Soviet socialism, from the 1950s to the 1980s, which recalls how the system already died before it officially did, but people continued on in denial, not knowing how else to live. There are many hints in this album that similar behavioural patterns, such with systems of capitalism and more, may be repeating themselves now in the west. The album is also coloured by the deaths of two band members’ parents over the course of recording. There there plenty of anger and despair, as well powerful rebellion against the downward spiral of things. Perhaps the key standout is Transmitter, with wonderful feel of Echo & The Bunnymen, but the whole record has an epic scale and resonance, from Scaring At The Sky to the defiantly darkly humorous gestural Two Fingers, the beautiful guitar riff on Fire Escape To the Sea, to the soaring and emotional Mercury Rev-resonant Lakeland Echo or We Only Want To Make You Happy. Something of landmark British record during challenging times by a great independently spirited band with things to say. Out on Golden Chariot Records.
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