As frontman of Nation of Ulysses, the Make-Up and latterly Chain and the Gang, Ian Svenonius has spent a quarter of a century sprinkling agitprop-heavy garage rock with gospel influences and James Brown showmanship, with mixed results. His solo debut represents a departure thanks to its wilfully lo-fi arrangements, his voice and guitar sketches fleshed out by just a drum machine. Rome Wasn’t Burnt in a Day, a stripped-down reworking of a recent Chain and the Gang song, is a call to arms that is, improbably, equal parts the Stooges’ I Wanna Be Your Dog and Mary Beard history lesson (too few songwriters today give the Ostrogoths their due), but there is precious little that sticks elsewhere. Svenonius’s distinctive gasping, yelping vocals at least keep the likes of Iron Curtain interesting; the parping riff of The Stars Get in the Way is merely irritating.
