I have a shameful past concerning Modern English. For a band that is such a strong element of the foundation of Post-Punk and New Wave I have never had one of their albums! It’s not that I disliked what I had heard. Far from it. I consider “I Melt With You” to be an evergreen perennial hit whose hundreds if not more plays I’ve heard were always a pleasure. Back when video was the way I heard new music, all of the videos I caught on MTV were very enjoyable New Wave. I have the material that the band recorded for the This Mortal Coil project. So I’ve heard about half a dozen tracks over the last 42 years. None of which were disappointing. And yet, there was always something else to buy instead of Modern English albums. Until this month, I had no idea that “1 2 3 4” had even been released in February of this year.

But sometimes the universe takes a 2″ x 4″ to my cranium and this month it came down to that. I was seeing the band play live at the Totally Tubular Festival, and when they announced on stage that they would be doing a signing at the record store I had already made plans to visit the next day, well, sometimes the obvious path is also the correct one.

This album kicked off with the briskly paced “Long In The Tooth,” which the band had played live in concert as the only band to fit new material into their set. When it’s this much fun, I can see why! With his vocals filtered with effects to make him sound enfeebled, Robbie Grey expressed wonderment at how things are shaping up as a member of the aged generation while the band were moving at a pace that belied the subject matter of the song. The insistent groove combined with the sweet string synth highlights of Steve Walker made for a bittersweet humor that was very rewarding.

The lurching backbeat anchoring “Not My Leader” sounded more playful than the embittered lyric, accurately reflecting the now, brought to the table. The warm chorused washes of guitar with rhythm guitar fillips rotating in the soundfield like they were run through a Leslie cabinet ensured that this brief potent song certainly didn’t overstay its welcome.

“Not Fake” broke out of the starting gate with an anthemic energy that was only perhaps sold short by the decision by producer Mario McNulty to once more load up Mr. Grey’s vocal with distancing effects. On the opener it fit the song better. Here, it created distance for the vocal from the heartfelt lyric that I think deserved to be more immediate. Especially since the music bed was a corker here.

The peals of feedback distortion that opened “Exploding” were almost a throwback to the Grunge era, Robbie Grey’s vocal was spoken rather than sung as the song developed into an almost psychedelic curio. The whalesong feedback on the middle eight must have been fun for guitarist Gary McDowall as the song returned to the hazy environs from whence it had come. Gently evaporating in an extensive and delicate coda.

Sequenced synths and some prominent bass from Michael Conroy set an enervated tone for the brief eco-rocker “Plastic.” Then the wall of guitars joined Grey for several bars of alarmist lyrics describing just how screwed we are by the plastics invading every nook and cranny of our bodies. I can remember the innocent era when we were worried about sea turtles and six pack rings. We’ve got a bigger problem now. The synth waves that closed out the number didn’t leave us warm and fuzzy.

And yet the next song did just that with its winsome and chiming synth melody. The ebullient single “Crazy Lovers” [the band also played this in concert] was an infectious earworm enhanced by the push-pull of the chorus structure that vacillated between major and minor chords like a musical paradox before ending on a letter perfect cold ending.

If there was any song here that reflected the music values of “I Melt With You” closest, that would have to be “I Know Your Soul.” The lively tremolo guitar riffs sparkled like sunshine on a lake as the synths glided lightly over the song like butterflies on an updraft. For something completely different, the lurching, fluid bass line anchored the sardonic “Genius” like a wacky sine wave as the song veered close to psychedelia. Walker’s synths taking off into outer space like UFOs in the song’s coda.

The urgency of “Out To Lunch” was another strong callback to the Post-Punk era. I loved the dissonant shouted backing vocals interjected almost randomly, but it was the guitars [possibly drenched in Space Echo] that pulled us back into the vortex at the center of this compelling song. The closer “Voices” opened on a sustained note on synthesizer as the slow motion psychedelia of the languid, tremolo-drenched song slowly opened up like a neon lotus in the waning light of the album. As an admirer of early Pink Floyd, this was very well done and resisted mere pastiche. At just about five minutes, it made for a trippy conclusion to the eclectic and rewarding album. Which can be heard below!

There was a lot on offer here for someone who had only heard a handful of the band’s singles over the long decades. The only production gambit I didn’t care for was the overuse, in my opinion, of effects on Robbie Grey’s vocals. That always builds a wall between me and the music, and these songs primarily strive for an intimacy that should be rock solid. With the exception of maybe the 90s throwback of “Exploding,” this album really reflected only the musical values of the Post-Punk era that had birthed the band. With the rest of the songs slotting nicely into a ’79-’84 vibe. Which, if you are anything like me, is about as good as things get!

The fascinating thing about Modern English is that the four member core of the band [bass, guitar, synths, vocal] here was exactly the same one that the band had at the very start! And the drummers they brought into the project [Ric Chandler and Roy Martin] were playing actual drum kits for a vibrant, live feel to the songs, even though they were recorded during the pandemic. And the design by Chris Bigg was very appropriate as their primary designer Vaughan Oliver was no longer walking this earth, so they turned to his V23 partner to be the thread of continuity going forward.

It would have been dispiriting to hear music like this with a digital drum machine. As it was, Modern English were capable of recording an eclectic album 45 years after forming, that drew from the band’s roots with no chaff cluttering things up. That it had a great variety of earworms and more challenging deep cuts that balanced out into a sympathetic musical offering that left me hoping that the band wouldn’t take another eight years to make their next album. And in the interim, it seems like I need to finally buy those earlier album that I’ve shamefully missed for decades! If you would like to partake, “1 2 3 4” is on the artists’s Bandcamp store with DL at $10.00, a CD at $15.00 and the yellow LP at $30.00. If you can dig it, DJ hit that button!

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