Album Reviews

I think there’s a recent interview with these guys online but I don’t want to read it. The less I know the better.

That these guys disbanded more than twenty years ago and only recently reformed is all I want to know and all I need to know. As far as I am concerned, during the hiatus they all were cryogenically frozen. None worked in banks, or worked at all, none got married, had kids, moved to the suburbs or did anything except chill.

That’s the only explanation I’ll buy for a band that simply picked up after a long break and was only better for it. There was a special energy to late ‘70’s, early ‘80’s punk/new wave that bands like MOB, Buzzcocks and the others extracted from the ether that none of the later day imitators could begin to grab. Yet, as this record demonstrates, Mission of Burma still has it 100%. In fact they are better now than before thanks to a gentle sprinkle of knowing irony and humor that only putting on a few years can bring.

They still pull off anthemic, buzz-saws, as on “Donna Sumeria,” they can still punch through with a pop melody fitted with an addictive hook, as on the opener “2Wice,” and they still have an XTC-like edge on “Spider’s Web,” that I’m not sure Andy Partridge can or wants to re-experience. If the good humor of “Let Yourself Go” doesn’t inspire you to experience your inner adolescent, I don’t care how old you are, then you are finished, my friend.

Look, if you don’t like nervous, jittery, overdriven controlled guitar frenzy, don’t come around here, but if you do, there are four sides of intense, inspired jagged-edged rock that will have you believing there is youth after middle-age. That’s what I take from this exuberant churn-fest and I’m not giving it back.

Band member and recording engineer Bob Weston creates an appropriately dark and grungy atmosphere using a wall of mouth-wateringly distorted guitars, a clean though suppressed and compressed drum kit and distant but dry and intelligible vocals.

While it’s hardly an “audiophile” recording by traditional audiophile standards, it’s “audiophile” in the sense that Weston knows what he’s doing in the studio and I’m certain he’s created a sound for this album that’s the sound he heard in his head. Had Dead Can Dance recorded “Good, Not Great,” (which sounds like a DCD tune) it wouldn’t sound like it does here, all grungy and dark but for MOB the murk and mystery work to perfection.

If you liked the original MOB, or Buzzcocks, XTC, or Wire, or any of the great bands from that era, I guarantee you’ll love this new MOB album.

The double LP includes a piece of paper with a code on it you can use to download the MP3 version of the album to your computer for free. How cool is that?