Future Of The Left - 'Travels With Myself And Another' (4AD) Released 22/06/09

You know what I’ve noticed recently? Rock music has lost its great big balls of fire. Words like ‘incendiary’ and ‘acerbic’ are often applied to insipid pretenders to the throne and guitars too often caress where they should frequently bludgeon. As a result, bands that have the controlled articulate fury of your Nirvanas and Pixies are few and far between.

Future of the Left were sent from another world (well, Cardiff actually) to change all of this. It takes about 15 seconds of the explosive opening ‘Arming Eritea’ to state the point, its immense riffs making Biffy Clyro sound like they play with instruments made out of candy floss.

“I’m not special or one of a kind” screams Andy Falkous. Well Andy, here is where we’ll agree to disagree because the music world actually needs people like you more than ever. Listening to Falkous is like hearing Bill Hicks being taught to play guitar by J Mascis, 30 minutes of cynical surrealism, hilarious observation and distortion.

The band may be abrasive enough to make Steve Albini cack his pants but they also have one essential component that Falkous’s previous band Mclusky always lacked: Their secret weapon is that they can get into the groove. Yes, groove. Rather than being a dirty word, it comes into play on synth heavy early highlight ‘Throwing bricks at trains’ and centerpiece ‘You need Satan more than he needs you’ to wonderful effect. The latter is a hilarious missive about a satanic worshipper trying to balance his schedule of ritual sacrifice with everyday concerns such as worrying about the babysitter.

Even for FOTL, this kind of lyrical Monty Python rock is a first and a badly needed slap in the face to pop music taking itself far too seriously. The closing ‘Lapsed Catholics’ confounds by starting with acoustic guitars and spoken word, proving that this is a band to keep you on your feet, urgently listening for the next twist in some interesting travels.

This is controlled fury that you can dance to and I mean actually dance, not merely smash yourself into the nearest tattooed, bearded follower at their next live show. Speaking of which, FOTL are missing a trick by not bootlegging and selling every live show they play, such is the piss taking hilarity on offer. This isn’t really the place to elaborate but if you haven’t seen them yet please just go: It will restore your faith in rock music.

Despite the gags, this is sonically a far more muscular effort than debut album ‘Curses’ and although it may not quite be their ‘Doolittle’ there will be little that you can do to stop its savagely melodic brilliance.

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