It was never really punk, was it? It was always in a spirit of extreme power-pop that the Buzzcocks carried out their sonic ram-raids – in like Flynn and out again in under three minutes, just like the early rockers, the two minute classics from Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, and the early Elvis. What the Buzzcocks did have in common with punk was the jab, jab, punch of verse and chorus stripped of any superfluous notes until only the ‘Song’ remained. Guts’n’bones’n’rock’n’roll.
And so it is with their latest offering ‘Flat-pack Philosophy’. After thirty years and seven previous studio albums, the Buzzcocks have yet again gone with the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach and given us fourteen songs in thirty-six breathless minutes.
‘Sell you Everything’, ‘Sound of a Gun’ and, well actually any of the tracks, could have appeared on any of their previous albums, replete as these songs are with their trademark shout-out choruses, turbo-charged guitar stabs and minimal chord changes. It’s totally predictable yet infectious stuff and it’s what we’ve always loved them for.
Pete Shelley’s menacing yet melodic snarled vocals alternates with Steve Diggles’ warmer, bassier rock-croon and the lyrics, while looking terrible on paper, make real, visceral sense when combined with the music.
Now, back to this ‘punk’ thing – the press release says ‘[The Buzzocks are] taking an urban guerilla stance against the evils of the modern world from Tesco self-service tills to the cult of Ikea’ Ignore the absence from this list of minor evils such as ethnic cleansing and terrorism for a second and just enjoy that last sentence. Personally, I love the ‘from…to’ bit, as if Ikea and Tesco were at opposite extremes, bookending such unspeakable crimes as annoying ring-tones and half-mast trousers. And incidentally, how do you take an urban guerilla stance against a self-service till?
Just as Ray Davies has gone from writing beautifully twisted reflections on English life to now sounding as if he is simply reading out letters to the Daily Express over three guitar chords, the Buzzcocks make pretty ineffectual urban guerillas. There is nothing here that has any political power, awareness, edge, passion, anything. What the band do have is a dog-in-traffic ability to sidestep crass fashions and busy themselves writing song after song after song, each packing all the musical power of a one-inch punch. Don’t ever try and dress that up as anything else. But don’t ever underestimate it either.
The single ‘Wish I Never Loved You’, despite its echoes of ‘Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t Have Fallen in Love With?)’ is dynamite. Buy it now from a self-service till near you.