Album Review: Newtown Neurotics - "Cognitive Dissidents"

 

Arguably the time is more right now than ever for a Newtown Neurotics comeback. In the early '80s, the group were one of the most overtly political bands on the scene, raging against the heartlessness of Thatcherism. Fast forward 40 years and we're stuck with a government magnifying all the worst aspects of that evil cow's style of government and an utterly toothless opposition that can't seem to offer any sort of credible alternative other than persecuting anyone in its ranks who dares to challenge the clearly broken status quo with both sides brayed on by the amoral scumbags in the mainstream press who farcically refer themselves as the "moral majority".

It's heartening to report that the Neurotics are still as fired up as ever despite their advancing years with the likes of Climate Emergency and Liar Liar being angry outbursts against fossil fuel companies (almost like a 2022 version of When The Oil Runs Out) and an angry diatribe against that sentient scarecrow that we finally booted out a couple of months ago. The six minute Get Your Filthy Hands Off Our Town is a despairing howl against the way the Neurotics' hometown of Harlow has been abandoned to turn into a rapidly decaying ghost town (having worked there for five years and seen the sorry state that the place has fallen into for myself, I can fully appreciate where they're coming from). Elsewhere, Hope and Stand With You are desperate cries to the British public not to be suckered by the lies in the right wing press ("If I hold up a mirror to you, you won't like what you see") and the Ian Dury-referencing Hell In A Handcart and I Get On Your Nerves are righteous vitriolic bursts of anger against the right wing gammonati.

Musically, this is a less punky Neurotics than you might have expected if you were expecting Beggars Can Be Choosers Part 2 but to be truthful that their 21st century sound, almost a kind of politicised power-pop/mod hybrid, actually suits them. Although there's places where Cognitive Dissidents does start to plod a bit (a couple of the tracks like Dumb could maybe have done with being trimmed from 5 minutes down to 3 to keep the flow moving a bit better), there's enough righteous anger in here to ensure that it never gets dull. They may not quite be the wiry, angry young men of yore but this is definitely still a band with a lot to say in this day and age and all power to them. 

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)