1970s Bristol punk-funk pioneers the Pop Group influenced countless artists, as disparate as Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan, Happy Mondays and the Rapture. After unexpectedly reforming in 2010, the post-punk provocateurs’ studio return in some ways picks up where they left off. Mark Stewart’s megaphone bellow urges a “call to arms” and threatens “We are legion, for we are strong”, while the band’s white funk rages around him with the social niceties of a jackhammer. And yet, with producer Paul (Adele) Epworth at the helm, there is a new gentility here: softer jazz textures, postmodern dance grooves and even actual pop songs: Mad Truth sounds like a politicised Friendly Fires. The ABC-style slap bass dates things at times, and the ultranew, pioneering shock of their early work is gone. Still, the likes of Nations – featuring Stewart ranting about “shit-on-the-wall protests” and consumerist evils – and Nowhere Girl, a sub-bass love song, show that these old radicals can certainly still startle.
