Gang of Four: Content

Gang of Four
Content
Rating: Grrrr

I always get a little bit nervous when bands I loved growing up get back together and record new material after a long hiatus; and I get even more nervous when it is only a partial reformation of the band. Most of the material that comes from this is at worst something embarassing (basically any album from Echo and the Bunnymen in the past 10 years) or something bland and boring (OMD's latest). When I saw that Andy Gill and Jon King were releasing a new Gang of Four album without Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham, I sighed and thought, this doesn't bode well. I am pleased to say that beyond being surprisingly good, the album is by far, one of their best since Entertainment!

Content shows Gang of Four retaining their signature sound of angular, scraping guitars, combined with acidic lyrics and chanted, sung vocals, and adding atmospheric electronics and subtle guitar effects, to make a more modern statement. "Do As I Say," takes its queue from the classic GOF playbook, jerky guitars and intense paranoia, creating an unbearable tension, but midway, alters the mood slightly with a gorgeous, moody echoed guitar part and lonely synth underpinning.

This is apparent throughout most of Content, songs that sound like they were straight from their late 70s/early 80s playbook, that subvert your expectations with slight twists. The dub inflections on "I Can See From Far Away"



the almost verbatim remake of "I Love A Man In Uniform," on "Who Am I?" right down to the disco guitars and female backup vocals.

Of course, no GOF album would be complete without their regular barn-burning songs lamenting the state of society. While consumerism is not the focus as in their older material, the new focus seems to be on the loneliness of modern life and how technology isolates and confuses. From the tightly coiled guitars of "She Said 'You Made A Thing of Me,'" and its paranoid and intense lyrics



the haunting guitars and vocals of "I Can't Forget Your Lonely Face," about the perils of not experiencing life firsthand



to the downright funky "I Party All The Time" which skewers the online dating scene, GOF show that they haven't lost their ascerbic wit.



GOF even break up their sonic template and show a new side to their sound. "Fruit Fly In The Beehive," could almost be considered a ballad, at least in their own terms; featuring a hushed vocal and lightly plucked guitars



and their true out of the box moment, "It Was Never Going To Turn Out Too Good," with its heavy guitar effects, dub percussion, and vocodored vocals, which at first is offputting, then becomes oddly affecting



The album is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Several songs meander and don't fully take off; the plodding "You Don't Have To Be Mad," and the textureless "You'll Never Pay For The Farm." But they are small quibbles compared to the uniform quality of the rest of the songs. It is nice to see that GOF still have the chops this late in the game. If only some of these returning acts would follow their lead, we would have a lot more good music to consider.

Rating Guide

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top albums of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been trimmed or polished.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.