High

I know it hasn't been long since my last New Model Army posting... but I just can't help myself.

There aren't too many musicians who are two decades deep into their journey and are still able to create with such urgent passion and purpose as NMA. Justin Sullivan and the boys are true poets of the working class.

I really posted this because I imagine that there is some grimy old bastard out there that used to be a NMA fan back in the eighties and has since lost touch or interest with them. If you should be that grimy old bastard, first I congratulate you on your mastery of the intraweb, but really I think you need to get back on board with NMA. High (2007) is a perfect reintroduction for you and your old friends. And should you not be an old acquaintance of NMA, what the Hell have you been listening to?

Their 10th album proves that it is not just youth alone that is able to create inspired post punk/rock anthems. Youth has no monopoly on New Model Army's expression of urgent humanism. The music of High is without a doubt more mature as a result of years of finely tuned songwriting for this road tested band ( see: "Sky In Your Eyes" and "Rivers"), but that classic New Model Army call to action is alive and well. I for one am able to sleep just a bit better, knowing that New Model Army still tend to the flame and wave their flag high.

Face into the wind, boys, face into the wind

The Ghost Of Cain

Post punk, rock, folk ... describe New Model Army as you will. The spirit of their music is genuinely revolutionary, humanist and socially vital. The Ghost of Cain from 1986 is their third full length and it is chock-full of punk fervor. It is filled to the brim with anger, frustration and the beauty of honest insight and expression. There's the vigilante's theme "The Hunt" (covered later by Brazil's Sepultura), the very personal "Love Songs" and "Poison Street", as well as the socially aware protest songs of "Master Race" and "Heroes". The biggest splash from this album was the politically charged "51st State," proving to be NMA's biggest hit to date. But it's not all about creating "hit" songs, is it? No, it is not. The album as a whole paints a bleak world view from the perspective of 1980s England. The empire in decline, the rise of American imperialism and the spread of American cultural values across once seemingly impenetrable national boundaries. Never was the sun supposed to set on Great Britain. Never were children meant to grow up realizing their dreams were just that, and nothing more.
But NMA offer more than just protest. Always present beneath the anger, the frustration, the disillusion, is the faint flame of humanity. Led by lead singer/songwriter Justin Sullivan, New Model Army's music speaks the plain truth of the common man and woman, never sugar or corn syrup coated, that along with the daily injustice and sufferings at the hands of indifferent and incompetent masters, comes the most basic of human conditions: the struggle for something better.

No police No summons No courts of law