Hello,
Today's Artists were one of the best post-punk outfits Great Britain ever produced. Combining the gut-level force of punk with the anthemic political fervor of U2 and the Alarm, as well as the urban protest folk of Billy Bragg, NMA sounded like few other bands mining similar post-punk territory. Their attack was hard, spare, and precise, but as time wore on, they were just as likely to deliver modern-day folk-rock replete with acoustic guitar, violin, and harmonica. Throughout their career, they remained staunch advocates of the British working class, occasionally tempering their leftist, anti-Thatcher political fury with moments of personal introspection. Their shout-along anthems often borrowed the football-chant feel of Oi!, but NMA were far less given to rabble-rousing, instead aiming for intelligent dissidence. ..............N'Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The band were formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire in the autumn of 1980, taking their name from the army established by Parliament during the English Civil War, and played their first concert in Bradford in October, playing songs based on their shared love of punk rock and Northern soul. Until the mid-1980s, Sullivan used the alter ego of "Slade the Leveller" (Levellers being a radical political movement of the 1640s), supposedly so that he would not lose his unemployment benefits if the authorities realized he was making money from music. They continued to gig around the United Kingdom with little recognition, but in 1983 released their first singles "Bittersweet" and "Great Expectations" on Abstract Records, and were given airplay by Radio 1's John Peel.
In February 1984, they were invited to play on popular music show The Tube, being introduced by presenter Muriel Gray as "the ugliest band in rock and roll". The producers of the show however were concerned about the lyrics of "Vengeance", which the band were due to perform ("I believe in justice / I believe in vengeance / I believe in getting the bastards") and so the band played "Christian Militia". Following this performance, the band's first mini-album Vengeance reached Number 1 in the UK independent chart in early 1984, pushing The Smiths from that position. After a further single "The Price" also reached a high placing in the independent charts, the band were signed by major label EMI.[8]
The band then made four studio albums (plus a live album) for EMI and one studio album for Epic, in a period of eight years. 1985's No Rest for the Wicked and associated single "No Rest" both made the mainstream Top 30 in the UK, the latter leading to some controversy when the band sported T-shirts with the phrase "Only Stupid Bastards Use Heroin" during an appearance on Top of the Pops. During the "No Rest" tour, Morrow left the band, and after some delay was replaced by 17-year-old Jason "Moose" Harris. However the band were refused work permits to enter the United States, as the US Immigration Department had said the band's work was of "no artistic merit". In December 1986 the band finally got permission to tour in the US. By this time The Ghost of Cain, produced by Glyn Johns, had been released, and was named best album of the year for 1986 in The Times by David Sinclair, who said that it "was the best thing to happen to English rock music since the first Clash album". Concerts included Reading Festival and a gig with David Bowie in front of the Reichstag in Berlin, and the band for the first time expanded their touring line-up to include a second guitarist in the shape of Ricky Warwick, as well as harmonica player Mark Feltham from Nine Below Zero.
Thunder and Consolation was released in February 1989, and saw the band moving towards a more folk-rock sound, especially on the tracks including violinist Ed Alleyne-Johnson. Described as the band's "landmark" album, it reached No.20 in the UK charts, the singles "Stupid Questions" and "Vagabonds" made an impression in America and the band was able to tour the album there with Alleyne-Johnson also providing additional guitar and keyboards. At the end of the year however, Harris left the band, to be replaced by Peter "Nelson" Nice, who would play with the band for more than 20 years. 1990's Impurity, continued the folk-driven theme with Alleyne-Johnson still to the fore, and Adrian Portas joining the band on guitar. The next album was to be a musical change of direction; as Sullivan later said, "just as this folk-cum-rave-cum-crusty-cum-new-age thing broke and became big in the early 1990s, we went – whoosh – done that – and went and made a very angry hard rock album". The Love of Hopeless Causes, New Model Army's only release on Epic Records, appeared in 1993 and led with the single "Here Comes the War", which spawned controversy when it came packaged with instructions on how to construct a nuclear device.
The band had previously decided to take a year out to concentrate on personal and other musical issues, and reconvened in late 1994 with Dean White, playing keyboards and guitar, replacing Alleyne-Johnson. It became clear, that all was not well between Sullivan and Heaton; Sullivan later said "We wrote Thunder and Consolation and it was brilliant, but very shortly after that, we started falling out, which went on during the making of that album. His life went in one direction and mine went in another". It was agreed that they would go their separate ways after the forthcoming album and tour. Strange Brotherhood was released in May 1998 to unsurprisingly mixed reviews, but then Heaton was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He suggested that his drum technician Michael Dean take over from him to tour the album. By this time the band had formed their own independent label, Attack Attack, and former tour manager Tommy Tee had returned to manage the band. A live album "...& Nobody Else" followed in 1999, and eighth studio album Eight in 2000.
After touring Eight, the band again took time out, most notably so that Sullivan could concentrate on his solo album Navigating by the Stars which was eventually released in 2003, and toured by Sullivan, Dean and White. As the band got together to record their ninth album, Robert Heaton died from pancreatic cancer on 4 November 2004. Carnival was finally released in September 2005, and includes Sullivan's reaction to Heaton's death, "Fireworks Night". Dave Blomberg was unable to take part in touring the album, and was replaced by current guitarist Marshall Gill. The band's tenth studio album, High, was produced relatively quickly and was released in August 2007. The tour suffered a slight setback when the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services again denied the band visas; this time the issue was relatively quickly resolved and the dates rescheduled for early 2008. Soon afterwards, the band was again shaken as manager Tommy Tee died unexpectedly at the age of 46. By 2009, though, the band were again back in the studio. Today Is a Good Day was a far more uncompromising album, the heavy rock title track and others directly referencing the stock market crash of 2008. As the tour to promote the album came to an end, it was drawing close to 30 years since the band had started.
30th anniversary to present (2010 on)
Towards the end of 2010, the band's 30th anniversary was celebrated with special shows across four continents every weekend from September until early December; in most cities, the shows were across two nights with completely different sets, the band having promised to play at least four songs from each of their eleven studio albums plus Lost Songs and B-Sides and Abandoned Tracks, their rarities and B-sides collections. The final shows at the Kentish Town Forum in London were collected on a double CD and DVD release containing all 58 songs played over the nights of 3 and 4 December. After the band had played their traditional Christmas shows the following year, the news was released that Nelson had decided to leave the band for personal reasons, a decision that had been taken some time before. a few days later, on Christmas Eve, a fire destroyed the band's studio and rehearsal space in Bradford. Numerous guitars and other instruments were lost along with recording equipment and memorabilia. However, the studio was back in operation within three months, and after a number of auditions, Ceri Monger was announced as the band's new bassist and multi-instrumentalist.
In 2013, the band's twelfth studio album, Between Dog and Wolf, mixed by Joe Barresi, was released and became the band's most successful since The Love of Hopeless Causes 20 years earlier. The album showed a marked shift away from the band's traditional sounds, including rhythms that were described as "tribal", though Sullivan claimed they were merely different ways of using drums – "We really like complex tom-tom rhythms, we really like that pounding (beat)". A year later, Between Wine and Blood was released, including six previously unreleased studio tracks from the Between Dog and Wolf sessions, along with eleven live tracks from that album. In October 2014, a documentary feature film about the band's career, Between Dog and Wolf: The New Model Army Story by director Matt Reid premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London and the Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal. The band's 14th studio album, Winter, was released on 26 August 2016. Winter was named the #1 album of 2016 by The Big Takeover.
Over the years, New Model Army have gathered a wide selection of fans, many of whom dedicatedly follow the band. Originally calling themselves "The Militia", after the song "Christian Militia", the term "The Family" was later universally adopted for what is a multi-generational and gendered group. Joolz Denby, long-time collaborator of Sullivan and the band's main artist has referred to The Family as "not a formal, contrived organisation, but a spontaneous sense of fellowship that has developed over the years", whilst elsewhere it has been described as "sanctuary ... and acceptance".
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
This Bradford trio really came out sporting for a fight on this eight-song 1984 debut, Vengeance, after four years of constant gigging and a couple of singles ("Bittersweet" and the classic "Great Expectations"). (The five songs from these singles were in turn added to the front of the CD reissue, along with three more from the post-LP third single, "The Price," inserted at the end.) Singer/guitarist Justin Sullivan's (aka Slade the Leveller) call-it-like-it-is-historically "Christian Militia" wasn't going to make him any friends down at the local vicar; the scathing anti-Falklands War sneer "Spirit of the Falklands" peed all over their country's brand new military triumph; the vigilante-flirting title track trod on both dangerous and controversial ground. But this sort of "you're going to have to confront this stuff" unyielding conviction remains all the more refreshing in an era where young bands try their hardest to say nothing about social issues (it isn't cool). And the anti-narcotics, anti small-town myopia, anti-empty-celebrityhood, and anti-self-indulgence words are riddled with a contrasting caring humanity. In short, it's one thing to protest, it's another to also want something better for others. That human touch is suffused through "Betcha," which is about frustrating miscommunication between lovers, and the well-stated disquiet of those whose lives seem suffocated in ordinariness on "Notice Me" and "Small Town England." Besides the words, Sullivan was already a supreme tunesmith and compelling singer to match the oratory, and original bassist Stuart Morrow is truly an acrobat. His fingers work overtime on what could only be described as lead playing, teamed with that bull of a drummer, gentle-giant sledgehammer Rob Heaton, as Sullivan keeps his own guitar minimal to give space to his outrageously busy rhythm section. It makes for outstanding post-punk, some of the best the genre ever produced, a style continued through the next two LPs after signing to major EMI.
New Model Army - Vengeance (flac 371mb)
01 Bittersweet (Ep Release) 3:09
02 Betcha (Ep Release) 2:33
03 Tension (Ep Release) 2:14
04 Great Expectations (Ep Release) 3:16
05 Waiting (Ep Release) 3:31
06 Christian Militia 3:25
07 Notice Me 2:35
08 Smalltown England 3:18
09 A Liberal Education 5:27
10 Vengeance 4:07
11 Sex (The Black Angel) 3:26
12 Running 3:55
13 Spirit Of The Falklands 3:47
14 The Price (Ep Release) 3:26
15 Nineteen Eighty-Four (Ep Release) 3:18
16 No Mans Land (Ep Release) 3:33
17 Great Expectations (Peel Session) 3:04
18 Notice Me (Peel Session) 2:39
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Sacrificing the experimental post-punk doodling that worked so well within defined songs on the first LP Vengeance strangely enough works here for this incredible band that won't hear any malarkey about how bad second LPs are supposed to be. A more direct approach works wonders, rendering every song a possible single, every one a flaming, emotion-wracked foray into human thoughts, customs, and politics. And Slade the Leveler's got some unparalleled British lyrics for this kind of statement-oriented music and tremendous songwriting on side one. "There is no rest for the wicked ones," he sings, like a saddened preacher, a sentiment you see again on the terrific "Drag It Down," like a guy standing at the edge of a pointless fray wondering why human beings are always so stupid. But he's also capable of great empathy for the times in England as they are in the 2010s, when so many young people are struggling economically, as "Young, Gifted and Skint" makes clear. Don't miss "Grandmother's Footsteps" and "Ambition," too; you won't hear busier bass playing on a hotfoot U.K. post-punk rock record this year. The evidence here is that New Model Army are getting even better when you might have expected the usual decline, suggesting that Slade is an artist with great ideas you can't exhaust, and all three members have the talent to make it something other than regurgitation.
New Model Army - No Rest For The Wicked (flac 260mb)
01 Frightened 3:42
02 Ambition 3:05
03 Grandmother's Footsteps 4:26
04 Better Than Then 3:13
05 My Country 3:40
06 No Greater Love 3:33
07 No Rest 5:22
08 Young, Gifted And Skint 3:09
09 Drag It Down 3:20
10 Shot 3:19
11 The Attack 3:30
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
It was still the 1980s. It was still the era of Maggie Thatcher, Ronnie Reagan and the other clowns that would have starred in a Team America: World Police of that decade. NMA were still highly political and very, very angry. Ghost is a logical step forward and different from No Rest For The Wicked. While the skill of the rhythm section, led by the late Robert Heaton, is still the driving force, the vocals are more prominently produced and the sound is overall more clearer and hard-rockish. Of course the real power is in the lyrics. It's not about making a statement, it's about expressing gut reactions to the state of the individual and the world as a whole. This is what NMA always did best. Here they do it at their most intense. The best known tracks from this album are "The Hunt" and "51st State" (quite uncharacteristic of the band in its three-chord simplicity), which are not the album's highlights. Digging deeper you find songs like "Poison Street" and "Love Songs", which still deservedly figure on their live sets. This album contains some of the finest punk anthems ever written.
New Model Army - The Ghost Of Cain (flac 234mb)
01 The Hunt 4:11
02 Lights Go Out 3:57
03 51st State 2:36
04 All Of This 3:34
05 Poison Street 3:07
06 Western Dream 3:54
07 Lovesongs 3:04
08 Heroes 4:06
09 Ballad 3:55
10 Master Race 3:00
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Perhaps 'Thunder And Consolation' will be remembered as the masterpiece album of New Model Army. Now over twenty years old, this album from the opening 'I Love The World' through to the classic 'Green and Grey', and on through a combination of fast tracks and heartfelt ballads remains completely timeless. Here we have a band and particularly the songwriting talents of Justin Sullivan and Robert Heaton (RIP) at their most prolific. The lyrics are bleak and offer the world a glimpse into the tough environment that was (is?) northern England in the harsh days of Conservative Britain. Tracks such as 'Vagabonds', '225', 'Stupid Questions', 'Ballad Of Bodmin Pill' well they are all brilliant. In fact there are too many tracks to mention individually, this is just the most intelligent form of rock music that you are ever likely to enjoy.
Thunder and Consolation begins grandly, keeping the keyboards from "White Coats" on "I Love the World," an anthem filled with bittersweet irony and sarcasm. Self-produced, the album never falters, and the single "Stupid Questions" made an impression on American college and modern-rock radio, especially when working visas were granted to the band and they were allowed to tour the U.S. Violin was added by Ed Elain Johnson to further fill out the sound and give it an "Irish Folk" quality on epic songs "Green and Grey," and "Vagabonds." The band uses samples on "225" and "Green and Grey" to further enhance the flavor of the album. The punk is still there, but expresses itself more in the speed of some songs, otherwise the music is mainly rock-oriented, often with acoustic guitar and some folk ballads. But new are the fine, thoughtful arrangements - the songs remain simple and to the point, but win by small details of substance and depth. Add to that a great production - unfussy, clear and punchy - that perfectly emphasizes the character of the songs.
New Model Army - Thunder And Consolation 1 (flac 307mb)
01 I Love The World 5:08
02 Stupid Questions 3:27
03 225 4:47
04 Inheritance 3:24
05 Green And Grey 5:48
06 Ballad Of Bodmin Pill 4:48
07 Family 4:01
08 Family Life 3:00
09 Vagabonds 5:24
10 Archway Towers 4:52
xxxxx
New Model Army - Thunder And Consolation 2 (flac 391mb)
01 White Coats 4:17
02 The Charge 3:25
03 Chinese Whispers 3:31
04 Nothing Touches 4:11
05 The Mermaid Song 1:24
06 Adrenalin (Electric Version) 4:27
07 Deadeye 4:53
08 Higher Wall 4:23
09 125 M.P.H. 3:58
10 I Love The World (Live) 5:18
11 Green And Grey (Live) 5:35
12 Archway Towers (Live) 4:42
13 Vagabonds (Live) 4:56
14 225 (Live) 4:04
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Today's Artists were one of the best post-punk outfits Great Britain ever produced. Combining the gut-level force of punk with the anthemic political fervor of U2 and the Alarm, as well as the urban protest folk of Billy Bragg, NMA sounded like few other bands mining similar post-punk territory. Their attack was hard, spare, and precise, but as time wore on, they were just as likely to deliver modern-day folk-rock replete with acoustic guitar, violin, and harmonica. Throughout their career, they remained staunch advocates of the British working class, occasionally tempering their leftist, anti-Thatcher political fury with moments of personal introspection. Their shout-along anthems often borrowed the football-chant feel of Oi!, but NMA were far less given to rabble-rousing, instead aiming for intelligent dissidence. ..............N'Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The band were formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire in the autumn of 1980, taking their name from the army established by Parliament during the English Civil War, and played their first concert in Bradford in October, playing songs based on their shared love of punk rock and Northern soul. Until the mid-1980s, Sullivan used the alter ego of "Slade the Leveller" (Levellers being a radical political movement of the 1640s), supposedly so that he would not lose his unemployment benefits if the authorities realized he was making money from music. They continued to gig around the United Kingdom with little recognition, but in 1983 released their first singles "Bittersweet" and "Great Expectations" on Abstract Records, and were given airplay by Radio 1's John Peel.
In February 1984, they were invited to play on popular music show The Tube, being introduced by presenter Muriel Gray as "the ugliest band in rock and roll". The producers of the show however were concerned about the lyrics of "Vengeance", which the band were due to perform ("I believe in justice / I believe in vengeance / I believe in getting the bastards") and so the band played "Christian Militia". Following this performance, the band's first mini-album Vengeance reached Number 1 in the UK independent chart in early 1984, pushing The Smiths from that position. After a further single "The Price" also reached a high placing in the independent charts, the band were signed by major label EMI.[8]
The band then made four studio albums (plus a live album) for EMI and one studio album for Epic, in a period of eight years. 1985's No Rest for the Wicked and associated single "No Rest" both made the mainstream Top 30 in the UK, the latter leading to some controversy when the band sported T-shirts with the phrase "Only Stupid Bastards Use Heroin" during an appearance on Top of the Pops. During the "No Rest" tour, Morrow left the band, and after some delay was replaced by 17-year-old Jason "Moose" Harris. However the band were refused work permits to enter the United States, as the US Immigration Department had said the band's work was of "no artistic merit". In December 1986 the band finally got permission to tour in the US. By this time The Ghost of Cain, produced by Glyn Johns, had been released, and was named best album of the year for 1986 in The Times by David Sinclair, who said that it "was the best thing to happen to English rock music since the first Clash album". Concerts included Reading Festival and a gig with David Bowie in front of the Reichstag in Berlin, and the band for the first time expanded their touring line-up to include a second guitarist in the shape of Ricky Warwick, as well as harmonica player Mark Feltham from Nine Below Zero.
Thunder and Consolation was released in February 1989, and saw the band moving towards a more folk-rock sound, especially on the tracks including violinist Ed Alleyne-Johnson. Described as the band's "landmark" album, it reached No.20 in the UK charts, the singles "Stupid Questions" and "Vagabonds" made an impression in America and the band was able to tour the album there with Alleyne-Johnson also providing additional guitar and keyboards. At the end of the year however, Harris left the band, to be replaced by Peter "Nelson" Nice, who would play with the band for more than 20 years. 1990's Impurity, continued the folk-driven theme with Alleyne-Johnson still to the fore, and Adrian Portas joining the band on guitar. The next album was to be a musical change of direction; as Sullivan later said, "just as this folk-cum-rave-cum-crusty-cum-new-age thing broke and became big in the early 1990s, we went – whoosh – done that – and went and made a very angry hard rock album". The Love of Hopeless Causes, New Model Army's only release on Epic Records, appeared in 1993 and led with the single "Here Comes the War", which spawned controversy when it came packaged with instructions on how to construct a nuclear device.
The band had previously decided to take a year out to concentrate on personal and other musical issues, and reconvened in late 1994 with Dean White, playing keyboards and guitar, replacing Alleyne-Johnson. It became clear, that all was not well between Sullivan and Heaton; Sullivan later said "We wrote Thunder and Consolation and it was brilliant, but very shortly after that, we started falling out, which went on during the making of that album. His life went in one direction and mine went in another". It was agreed that they would go their separate ways after the forthcoming album and tour. Strange Brotherhood was released in May 1998 to unsurprisingly mixed reviews, but then Heaton was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He suggested that his drum technician Michael Dean take over from him to tour the album. By this time the band had formed their own independent label, Attack Attack, and former tour manager Tommy Tee had returned to manage the band. A live album "...& Nobody Else" followed in 1999, and eighth studio album Eight in 2000.
After touring Eight, the band again took time out, most notably so that Sullivan could concentrate on his solo album Navigating by the Stars which was eventually released in 2003, and toured by Sullivan, Dean and White. As the band got together to record their ninth album, Robert Heaton died from pancreatic cancer on 4 November 2004. Carnival was finally released in September 2005, and includes Sullivan's reaction to Heaton's death, "Fireworks Night". Dave Blomberg was unable to take part in touring the album, and was replaced by current guitarist Marshall Gill. The band's tenth studio album, High, was produced relatively quickly and was released in August 2007. The tour suffered a slight setback when the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services again denied the band visas; this time the issue was relatively quickly resolved and the dates rescheduled for early 2008. Soon afterwards, the band was again shaken as manager Tommy Tee died unexpectedly at the age of 46. By 2009, though, the band were again back in the studio. Today Is a Good Day was a far more uncompromising album, the heavy rock title track and others directly referencing the stock market crash of 2008. As the tour to promote the album came to an end, it was drawing close to 30 years since the band had started.
30th anniversary to present (2010 on)
Towards the end of 2010, the band's 30th anniversary was celebrated with special shows across four continents every weekend from September until early December; in most cities, the shows were across two nights with completely different sets, the band having promised to play at least four songs from each of their eleven studio albums plus Lost Songs and B-Sides and Abandoned Tracks, their rarities and B-sides collections. The final shows at the Kentish Town Forum in London were collected on a double CD and DVD release containing all 58 songs played over the nights of 3 and 4 December. After the band had played their traditional Christmas shows the following year, the news was released that Nelson had decided to leave the band for personal reasons, a decision that had been taken some time before. a few days later, on Christmas Eve, a fire destroyed the band's studio and rehearsal space in Bradford. Numerous guitars and other instruments were lost along with recording equipment and memorabilia. However, the studio was back in operation within three months, and after a number of auditions, Ceri Monger was announced as the band's new bassist and multi-instrumentalist.
In 2013, the band's twelfth studio album, Between Dog and Wolf, mixed by Joe Barresi, was released and became the band's most successful since The Love of Hopeless Causes 20 years earlier. The album showed a marked shift away from the band's traditional sounds, including rhythms that were described as "tribal", though Sullivan claimed they were merely different ways of using drums – "We really like complex tom-tom rhythms, we really like that pounding (beat)". A year later, Between Wine and Blood was released, including six previously unreleased studio tracks from the Between Dog and Wolf sessions, along with eleven live tracks from that album. In October 2014, a documentary feature film about the band's career, Between Dog and Wolf: The New Model Army Story by director Matt Reid premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London and the Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal. The band's 14th studio album, Winter, was released on 26 August 2016. Winter was named the #1 album of 2016 by The Big Takeover.
Over the years, New Model Army have gathered a wide selection of fans, many of whom dedicatedly follow the band. Originally calling themselves "The Militia", after the song "Christian Militia", the term "The Family" was later universally adopted for what is a multi-generational and gendered group. Joolz Denby, long-time collaborator of Sullivan and the band's main artist has referred to The Family as "not a formal, contrived organisation, but a spontaneous sense of fellowship that has developed over the years", whilst elsewhere it has been described as "sanctuary ... and acceptance".
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
This Bradford trio really came out sporting for a fight on this eight-song 1984 debut, Vengeance, after four years of constant gigging and a couple of singles ("Bittersweet" and the classic "Great Expectations"). (The five songs from these singles were in turn added to the front of the CD reissue, along with three more from the post-LP third single, "The Price," inserted at the end.) Singer/guitarist Justin Sullivan's (aka Slade the Leveller) call-it-like-it-is-historically "Christian Militia" wasn't going to make him any friends down at the local vicar; the scathing anti-Falklands War sneer "Spirit of the Falklands" peed all over their country's brand new military triumph; the vigilante-flirting title track trod on both dangerous and controversial ground. But this sort of "you're going to have to confront this stuff" unyielding conviction remains all the more refreshing in an era where young bands try their hardest to say nothing about social issues (it isn't cool). And the anti-narcotics, anti small-town myopia, anti-empty-celebrityhood, and anti-self-indulgence words are riddled with a contrasting caring humanity. In short, it's one thing to protest, it's another to also want something better for others. That human touch is suffused through "Betcha," which is about frustrating miscommunication between lovers, and the well-stated disquiet of those whose lives seem suffocated in ordinariness on "Notice Me" and "Small Town England." Besides the words, Sullivan was already a supreme tunesmith and compelling singer to match the oratory, and original bassist Stuart Morrow is truly an acrobat. His fingers work overtime on what could only be described as lead playing, teamed with that bull of a drummer, gentle-giant sledgehammer Rob Heaton, as Sullivan keeps his own guitar minimal to give space to his outrageously busy rhythm section. It makes for outstanding post-punk, some of the best the genre ever produced, a style continued through the next two LPs after signing to major EMI.
New Model Army - Vengeance (flac 371mb)
01 Bittersweet (Ep Release) 3:09
02 Betcha (Ep Release) 2:33
03 Tension (Ep Release) 2:14
04 Great Expectations (Ep Release) 3:16
05 Waiting (Ep Release) 3:31
06 Christian Militia 3:25
07 Notice Me 2:35
08 Smalltown England 3:18
09 A Liberal Education 5:27
10 Vengeance 4:07
11 Sex (The Black Angel) 3:26
12 Running 3:55
13 Spirit Of The Falklands 3:47
14 The Price (Ep Release) 3:26
15 Nineteen Eighty-Four (Ep Release) 3:18
16 No Mans Land (Ep Release) 3:33
17 Great Expectations (Peel Session) 3:04
18 Notice Me (Peel Session) 2:39
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Sacrificing the experimental post-punk doodling that worked so well within defined songs on the first LP Vengeance strangely enough works here for this incredible band that won't hear any malarkey about how bad second LPs are supposed to be. A more direct approach works wonders, rendering every song a possible single, every one a flaming, emotion-wracked foray into human thoughts, customs, and politics. And Slade the Leveler's got some unparalleled British lyrics for this kind of statement-oriented music and tremendous songwriting on side one. "There is no rest for the wicked ones," he sings, like a saddened preacher, a sentiment you see again on the terrific "Drag It Down," like a guy standing at the edge of a pointless fray wondering why human beings are always so stupid. But he's also capable of great empathy for the times in England as they are in the 2010s, when so many young people are struggling economically, as "Young, Gifted and Skint" makes clear. Don't miss "Grandmother's Footsteps" and "Ambition," too; you won't hear busier bass playing on a hotfoot U.K. post-punk rock record this year. The evidence here is that New Model Army are getting even better when you might have expected the usual decline, suggesting that Slade is an artist with great ideas you can't exhaust, and all three members have the talent to make it something other than regurgitation.
New Model Army - No Rest For The Wicked (flac 260mb)
01 Frightened 3:42
02 Ambition 3:05
03 Grandmother's Footsteps 4:26
04 Better Than Then 3:13
05 My Country 3:40
06 No Greater Love 3:33
07 No Rest 5:22
08 Young, Gifted And Skint 3:09
09 Drag It Down 3:20
10 Shot 3:19
11 The Attack 3:30
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
It was still the 1980s. It was still the era of Maggie Thatcher, Ronnie Reagan and the other clowns that would have starred in a Team America: World Police of that decade. NMA were still highly political and very, very angry. Ghost is a logical step forward and different from No Rest For The Wicked. While the skill of the rhythm section, led by the late Robert Heaton, is still the driving force, the vocals are more prominently produced and the sound is overall more clearer and hard-rockish. Of course the real power is in the lyrics. It's not about making a statement, it's about expressing gut reactions to the state of the individual and the world as a whole. This is what NMA always did best. Here they do it at their most intense. The best known tracks from this album are "The Hunt" and "51st State" (quite uncharacteristic of the band in its three-chord simplicity), which are not the album's highlights. Digging deeper you find songs like "Poison Street" and "Love Songs", which still deservedly figure on their live sets. This album contains some of the finest punk anthems ever written.
New Model Army - The Ghost Of Cain (flac 234mb)
01 The Hunt 4:11
02 Lights Go Out 3:57
03 51st State 2:36
04 All Of This 3:34
05 Poison Street 3:07
06 Western Dream 3:54
07 Lovesongs 3:04
08 Heroes 4:06
09 Ballad 3:55
10 Master Race 3:00
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Perhaps 'Thunder And Consolation' will be remembered as the masterpiece album of New Model Army. Now over twenty years old, this album from the opening 'I Love The World' through to the classic 'Green and Grey', and on through a combination of fast tracks and heartfelt ballads remains completely timeless. Here we have a band and particularly the songwriting talents of Justin Sullivan and Robert Heaton (RIP) at their most prolific. The lyrics are bleak and offer the world a glimpse into the tough environment that was (is?) northern England in the harsh days of Conservative Britain. Tracks such as 'Vagabonds', '225', 'Stupid Questions', 'Ballad Of Bodmin Pill' well they are all brilliant. In fact there are too many tracks to mention individually, this is just the most intelligent form of rock music that you are ever likely to enjoy.
Thunder and Consolation begins grandly, keeping the keyboards from "White Coats" on "I Love the World," an anthem filled with bittersweet irony and sarcasm. Self-produced, the album never falters, and the single "Stupid Questions" made an impression on American college and modern-rock radio, especially when working visas were granted to the band and they were allowed to tour the U.S. Violin was added by Ed Elain Johnson to further fill out the sound and give it an "Irish Folk" quality on epic songs "Green and Grey," and "Vagabonds." The band uses samples on "225" and "Green and Grey" to further enhance the flavor of the album. The punk is still there, but expresses itself more in the speed of some songs, otherwise the music is mainly rock-oriented, often with acoustic guitar and some folk ballads. But new are the fine, thoughtful arrangements - the songs remain simple and to the point, but win by small details of substance and depth. Add to that a great production - unfussy, clear and punchy - that perfectly emphasizes the character of the songs.
New Model Army - Thunder And Consolation 1 (flac 307mb)
01 I Love The World 5:08
02 Stupid Questions 3:27
03 225 4:47
04 Inheritance 3:24
05 Green And Grey 5:48
06 Ballad Of Bodmin Pill 4:48
07 Family 4:01
08 Family Life 3:00
09 Vagabonds 5:24
10 Archway Towers 4:52
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New Model Army - Thunder And Consolation 2 (flac 391mb)
01 White Coats 4:17
02 The Charge 3:25
03 Chinese Whispers 3:31
04 Nothing Touches 4:11
05 The Mermaid Song 1:24
06 Adrenalin (Electric Version) 4:27
07 Deadeye 4:53
08 Higher Wall 4:23
09 125 M.P.H. 3:58
10 I Love The World (Live) 5:18
11 Green And Grey (Live) 5:35
12 Archway Towers (Live) 4:42
13 Vagabonds (Live) 4:56
14 225 (Live) 4:04
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1 comment:
Seems I missed this post last year, could you please reup Vengeance? Thanky you very much!
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