Modern (Buzzcocks album)

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"Also crucial to the Buzzcocks' reinvention of the pop song, and demonstrated perfectly again by Modern, is Shelley's ability to endlessly rewrite the classic adolescent pop narrative, albeit in gender-ambiguous terms and from an unrelentingly miserable and niggly perspective. We can only hope that Shelley's lyrical voice is not his own given that, after all these years, it's still distinctly unlucky and profoundly unhappy in love."

 —Wilson Neate of Consumable Online [13]

Wilson Neate of Consumable Online said that "rather than destroy the pop song they [deconstruct] it, playfully reinventing it as a catchy, self-conscious pastiche of itself." [13] Neate noted that as with previous albums, Pete Shelley's work on Modern takes the historically distant, paradigmatic pop format of 50s and 60s bubblegum boy-girl songs as its starting point, but while the lyrical and musical framework of this foundational form is left nominally intact (the harmonies, the I/you romance narrative, the straightforward verse/chorus structure and the simple chord progressions), it is compressed into a shorter, faster package, supplemented and shot through with jagged, saw-like guitars, and scattered with irregular, staccato beats, [13] adding that "still crucial too is Shelley's distinctive vocal style which continues to unsettle the traditional, formal symmetry of conventional pop. Modern is rife with examples of irregular combinations of short punchy stanzas and lengthy, weaving run-on lines–sometimes stretched out for a painful but compelling duration–that both carry and lead the songs. Moreover, this combination of the brusque and the drawn out line--on top of the contrast of the staccato beats and the whining, UK-police-siren-circa-'76 guitar sound--emphasizes the twin-pronged emotional thrust of Shelley's lyrical content: that is, the expression of explosive angst and irritability coupled with lingering discomfort and frustration." [13]

Songs

"For me if you can walk down the street and you can see the sun then it’s all not that bad. It was like the Wild West in Camden at the time, that song came through running into those people, seeing casualties, lots of people thinking they were going to make it, their dreams becoming a nightmare."

 —Steve Diggle referring to "Don't Let the Car Crash", which refers to a car crash he was in aged 17 in which his best friend died. [16]

Opening song "Soul on a Rock" begins with synths and guitars which "combust with energy." [14] "Rendevouz" has been compared to the new wave band Blondie. [17] "Thunder of Hearts" features the Japanese proverb "even monkeys fall from trees"; Shelley said "I sometimes buy lots of Japanese books, and there was one which was Japanese proverbs. And that was actually the title of the book, even monkeys fall from trees. It means even the most skillful people can make mistakes." [6] "Why Compromise?" features a minimalistic electronic drum sound [15] and has been described as an "discoid anthem." [1] "Don't Let the Car Crash" is one of the album's less immediate songs. [1] Mark Caro of The Chicago Tribune described "Doesn't Mean Anything" as "rapping-over-Casiotone." [14] Skate and Annoy said "as goofy as the production on “Doesn’t Mean Anything” is, it grows on you." [15] "Turn of the Screw" is one of the album's examples of Shelley's "straight-ahead pop-punk" songs. [5] "Phone" has been compared to the music of Shelley's solo album XL1 (1983). "Runaround" and "Thunder of Hearts" are "instant singalongs" that showcase Shelley's "guitar-driven bubble punk." [14]

Gigslutz observed that "Speed of Life" and "Don't Let the Car Crash" both sport "Bowie-esque titles," as David Bowie's electronic-tinged album Low (1977) contained tracks named "Speed of Life" and "Always Crashing in the Same Car". [16] When asking Diggle if the band were inspired by him on the album, replied "I’d forgotten 'Speed of Life', it was a little in-joke to me because I was taking a lot of speed at the time! Britpop was underway, lots of crazy parties, hedonistic times, that notion of living your life, too busy to notice what you’re doing, don’t always stop and think ‘Who the fuck am I?" [16] He added that "Don't let the Car Crash" dates from when he was in a car crash when he was 17: "my best mate died, we were all a bit drunk going down the road, we’d been thrown out of a club for dancing with each other, sure they were playing ‘Starman’! We got in and the car careered off the road, and I thought ‘Fuck, I’m gonna die’, was thrown about everywhere. we ended up in a garage and demolished the petrol pump, we could have all gone up in flames. When I got out my mate was on the floor, I thought he was ok, it seemed to take forever, he'd died. That changed my life a lot." [16]

Release

As the collapse of I.R.S. Records in July 1996 had left the band without a record deal, the band signed to EMI in the United Kingdom [18] and independent punk rock label Go-Kart Records in the United States. [19] EMI had contacted the band keen to release one of their albums and wanted to know when they could have one, with Barber replying to them "we have one done already". Upon being given the album in March 1999, EMI were reported to "love it already." [9] In the UK, Modern was released by EMI on 7 September 1999 as an LP and as a double CD set; the second disc being the newly compiled greatest hits compilation A Different Kind of Product. [18] This extra disc was an abridged version of the band's anthology box set Product (1989) and contains twelve of the band's early singles as well as an enhanced CD element featuring the music videos for the Modern song "Promises" and two of the early singles featured on the disc, "What Do I Get?" and "Why She's a Girl from the Chainstore." [15] The enhanced CD also features "loads of memorabilia", including a multimedia described by one critic as "a slide show without commentary and a bad interface" and the 1980s I.R.S. video Playback, an "excellent" video featuring studio and live footage, promotional videos, and TV appearances from Top of the Pops , Jukebox Jury , and "some bizarro kids program" among others. [15]

The album was released in the United States by Go-Kart Records as a single CD and LP a week later on 14 September 1999. [18] It did not feature the bonus disc, but most copies did feature new artwork, featuring a black album cover instead of the stark blue sleeve of the UK release, which was designed by Buzzcocks and The Red Room. [10] Another special edition was released in the US, featuring a pink vinyl. [20] To promote the album in the UK, EMI released Promotional Product, an EP led by two songs from Modern–"Thunder of Hearts" and a radio edit of "Soul on a Rock"–and completed by the band's 1978 single "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)". [21] A music video was also produced for "Thunder of Hearts". [6] As with previous singles, the band "let other people decide" that the song would be the first single: "We tend to go with the consensus. It seemed a bit arrogant to say that we know better than everyone else. I mean we do." [6] Modern and the EP were not commercial success in either country, but the album saw steady sales due to the band's supporting tour. Pending contractual issues, Modern was belatedly released in early 2000 in Europe and Japan. [9]

Critical reception

Modern
BuzzModern.jpg
Studio album by
Released7 September 1999 (1999-09-07)
Recorded22 June–13 August 1998, 14 September–13 October 1998
StudioThe Surgery, Barnet, Herefordshire; mixed at Woodbine Street Recording Studios, Leamington Spa
Genre
Length40:43
Label
Producer Tony Barber
Buzzcocks chronology
All Set
(1996)
Modern
(1999)
Buzzcocks
(2003)
Singles from Modern
  1. "Thunder of Hearts"
    Released: August 1999 [3]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [22]
The A.V. Club favourable [1]
Chicago Tribune mixed [23]
Robert Christgau Five Pointed Star Solid.svg Five Pointed Star Solid.svg Five Pointed Star Solid.svg [24]
Pitchfork 3.5/10 [11]

Critical response to Modern was mostly positive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic was favourable and rated the album three stars out of five, saying that although "Diggle's songs sound a little weaker than Pete Shelley's" due to their electronic influence, Modern is a "minor triumph" that proves that "the Buzzcocks not only sound better than any of their punk peers on Modern, they sound better than most of the young punk revivalists. And at the very least, that's somewhat noteworthy." [5] Antek Pistole of Ox Fanzine said the band "still write great songs" and said that although the album might not appeal to fans of 1977 punk rock, it would appeal to Buzzcocks fans. [12] Kilwag of Skate and Annoy was very favourable, "Modern is a very good record. If the Buzzcocks were a new band this record would probably be getting lots of press, hype, and promotion. Let’s hope that enough people buy it so that Pete (Well Steve) doesn’t feel it necessary to sell the rights to Autonomy to Microsoft." [15] Robert Christgau quipped that Modern showed the band "looking for the same new love with the same new tunes" and rated it a "three-star honorable mention", indicating "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure." [25]

In a very favourable review, Wilson Neate of Consumable Online said that "during its finest moments, Modern reminds us that the Buzzcocks' significant contributions are often unfairly overshadowed by a tendency to look no further than the Sex Pistols or The Clash for a blueprint of British punk. The Pistols wrote the book on punk-as-situation / style / shock, while the Clash covered the political angle, but the Buzzcocks (along with Wire) took punk beyond the gesture and the pose and left perhaps the most substantial and enduring musical legacy." [13] He concluded "so, to plagiarize a question asked by Pete Shelley quite a few years ago, "what do I get" from Modern? Quite a lot actually. During its best moments--"Soul on a Rock", Rendezvous," "Runaround," "Choices," "Why Compromise" and "Under the Sun"—this album is vintage Buzzcocks. And what more could you ask for?" Joshua Klein of The A.V. Club, on the other hand, wrote "the band reunited in time to ride the new punk wave, but something was missing from its two capable comeback albums. The new Modern is something else entirely: Essentially picking up where the band left off in 1981, the ironically-titled disc sounds like it was recorded just as punk turned into new wave", calling it "retro in the best sense". [1]

The album had some mixed and negative reviews. Michael Sandlin of Pitchfork rated the album 3.5/10 and called it "wholly ill-conceived and mind-numbingly dull" and that "[it] seems like a weak attempt by a once-great band to simply sound 'current', whatever that means." [11] Mark Caro of Chicago Tribune said "catchiness without urgency equals something, but vintage Buzzcocks it ain't." [14] David Daley of the Hartford Courant said "The Buzzcocks' caffeinated punk-pop of two decades ago was fueled by teenage angst and desire, and of their contemporaries, perhaps only the Undertones did it better. Now, it's not that angst ever disappears. But there's still something tragic about singer/songwriter Pete Shelley's attempts to milk those now long-dried wells on Modern, as his helium-voice laments the return to fast cars, watched phones that don't ring and misbegotten romances." [26]

Legacy

In his 2012 book The Anarchy Tour, music writer Mick O'Shea said that alongside the band's other post-reunion albums, Modern "served to affirm that Buzzcocks could still appeal to a global audience while still remaining true to their original ideals." [27] whilst music writer Colin Larkin rated the album three stars out of five in the fifth edition of The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2011), saying that alongside All Set, it "confirmed the Buzzcocks' latter-day renaissance." [28] Alongside All Set, it has been said that Modern "reaffirmed Buzzcocks' position as a band deeply loved and revered by a global audience, simultaneously true to their original ideals and open to new ideas." [29] Regardless, in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Modern is rated with two stars out of five and is described as "plastic new wave." [2] Skate and Annoy said that "each time you listen to Modern it gets better and better." [15]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Pete Shelley, except where noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Soul on a Rock" 4:00
2."Rendezvous" 3:35
3."Speed of Life" Steve Diggle 4:32
4."Thunder of Hearts" 2:56
5."Why Compromise?" 3:32
6."Don't Let the Car Crash"Diggle4:28
7."Runaround" 3:27
8."Doesn't Mean Anything"Diggle2:49
9."Phone" 3:02
10."Under the Sun" 3:31
11."Turn of the Screw"Diggle2:38
12."Sneaky" 2:20
13."Stranger in Your Town"Diggle2:25
14."Choices" 3:31

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes. [30]

Buzzcocks
Technical

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