Album Review: Buzzcocks - "Sonics In The Soul"

 

I think it's safe to say that the stakes are pretty high here. Following Pete Shelley's passing a few years ago, there were a fair few Buzzcocks fans who were of the view that the band should call it a day or at the very least change their name to reflect the fact that one of their two main songwriters and ever-present members was no longer with us. So it's safe to say that Steve Diggle's decision to continue releasing music under the Buzzcocks name (albeit with Shelley's blessing apparently) wasn't exactly warmly received by certain sections of the fanbase. Without wanting to be over-dramatic about it, I think it's no exaggeration to say that a mis-step on this one could've proved fatal.

However, fair play to Diggle, Sonics In The Soul is actually a pretty decent effort, worthy of the Buzzcocks name and should hopefully mollify some of the sceptics. I'd even go so far to say that this is a better effort than the band's final album with Shelley, 2014's slightly underwhelming The Way. Quite simply, it's the same sort of short sharp three minute bursts of power-pop bliss that informed the band's best stuff and the opening one-two-three of former single Senses Out Of Control, Manchester Rain and the What Do I Get? soundalike You've Changed Everything Now are a welcome reminder that this is a band who've still got plenty of fire left in the tank while the chugging Bad Dreams (which again has shades of Buzzcocks past, You Say You Don't Love Me in this case) and the melodic Nothingness World shows that they can do mid-paced to good effect too and the laconic Don't Mess With My Brain even has a hint of early Ramones about it.

Side two is pretty good as well with the the snotty Just Got To Let It Go and the chiming Everything Is Wrong being good solid slices of pop-punk before we get the three longest songs to finish the album off - the woozy Experimental Farm goes into almost dub territory before the chugging Can You Hear Tomorrow and Venus Eyes finish the album off nicely.

Fair play to Diggle, with Sonics In The Soul, what could potentially have been a disastrous album has ended up being one of the strongest Buzzcocks offerings for many a year and I happily recommend it. Something tells me Pete Shelley's looking down smiling at this album and I can't think of a higher compliment for it than that.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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