New Model Army – Vengeance

New Model Army have been soldiering on in various guises since 1980, but it’s this collection of earlier works that captures the Bradford band at their most radical and vital. Living by John Lydon’s declaration that anger is an energy, they were (and still are) a post-punk band always with an ear for the anthemic. Where others of their ilk chose different creative paths – Crass into their own crusty cottage industry, The Cult into feather earrings and arena rock – New Model Army trod a middle ground that managed to juggle melody with political ideals. Vengeance is still a righteously indignant slab of muscular, Ruts-style punk, Nineteen Eighty-Four as bleak and confrontational as the Thatcher era that produced it and debut single Bittersweet’s stripped-down instrumentation reminiscent of The Cure. Justin Sullivan’s song writing is strong throughout and more than anything Vengeance serves to remind that times of recession often produce great protest art.

Ripped to MP3

New Model Army had been kicking around nearly four years before their debut album finally appeared in 1984. How much had changed since punk had first emerged from the barricades back in 1976. Back then, bands that had formed mere weeks before were snatched up by major labels, but the punk scene had been reduced to ashes, and in the bleak post-punk period the labels chased their own tails in desperate search of the next big thing. And an unrepentant punk trio certainly wasn't considered "it." Yet, for those who continued to yearn for the fire and fury of yore, New Model Army was a rallying cry. Their debut album, Vengeance, was unapologetic, unreconstructed punk, a savage indictment of Thatcher's Britain which roared with unabating rage. "Is it a crime to want something else?/Is it a crime to believe something different," they demand to know in "Smalltown England," a scathing look at life in England's ever-more-conservative villages. "A Liberal Education" decries the loss of paradise and innocence and alludes to the collapse of the left, the self-destruction of the punk scene, and most of all the surrender of those who should care. "How could you be so stupid?," vocalist Slade the Leveller spits out with a bitterness that burns like bile. "Christian Militia" derides the rise of the born-agains in the U.S. and would itself be reborn (with new lyrics) as "Here Comes the War." "Notice Me" is a pitying sneer at those desperate for attention; "Spirit of the Falklands" was a belated condemnation of the war fever that swept Britain a couple of years earlier. New Model Army's targets were manifold and manifest. However, it was the title track that best summed up their philosophy: "I believe in justice/I believe in vengeance/I believe in getting the bastard." And when the trio went after whatever bastard they had set their sights on, there was little left but dust when they were done. More importantly, like the original reissue, this album also includes the group's earliest singles: their driving 1983 debut, "Bittersweet"; the searing, ironic "Great Expectations," released later that same year; and the pounding desire of "The Price," which appeared in late 1984. The B-sides are all here as well -- a real boon, as none of them ever appeared on album, while two 12" B-sides are also included, both taken from their radio session for Radio One DJ John Peel. Vengeance was one of the most breath-taking punk debuts in history; the group had plenty of time to get it right. They used that time well.

Tracklist

1. Bittersweet,

2. Betcha, 

3. Tension, 

4. Great Expectations, 

5. Waiting, 

6. Christian Militia, 

7. Notice Me, 

8. Smalltown England, 

9. A Liberal Education, 

10. Vengeance, 

11. Sex (The Black Angel), 

12. Running In The Rain, 

13. Spirit Of The Falklands, 

14. The Price, 

15. 1984, 

16. No Man's Land, 

17. Great Expectations (The Peel Seesions), 

18. Notice Me (The Peel Sessions)