Gang Of Four - Content

Regularly unappreciated as an influential force until the disco-punk revival of 2003/4, when a mechanical rhythm section came as standard (Andy Gill noticeably producing The Futureheads' debut), Content keeps the same amused cold detachment and sense of humourous disbelief that has always coloured their work.

For a band who always seemed critical and suspicious of love and affairs of the heart as a lyrical concern, it's telling that throbbing, tense opener 'She Said ''You Made A Thing Of Me'' ' talks of being 'lost in nursery rhymes'. Considering the bleak and uncertain political landscape, Content is not massively concerned with topical conundrums, rather offering up a tongue-in-cheek series of commentaries of the absurdity of the modern human condition ('Every night you dress as lover's bait to give yourself to someone that you hate' asks the tongue-in-cheek funk of 'I Party All The Time', which is much more reminiscent of U2's 'Discotheque' than you expect it's authors had planned).

There's not much here that strikes as the listener as a nostalgic retread, but nothing that really grabs the attention or demands repeated listening either, recent single 'Who Am I?' being a hugely inconsequential snapshot of the album as a whole. The new rhythm section offers something more modern and somewhat cluttered than the tight, hi-hat heavy patterns so associated with their early work, and the overriding style of their indie-funk successors, a style that became so formulaic and overused that it became something far from radical. On the other hand, there's nothing entirely revolutionary either, which is both disappointing yet inevitable for an act so late into their career.

The flipside of cold and detached music is the risk that it lacks emotional punch. It's a formula that worked on the clinical and stark nature of tracks such as 'At Home He Feels Like A Tourist' and 'To Hell With Poverty!' and for their contemporaries such as Public Image Limited, but there's a nagging feeling of irrelevance that permeates the whole of Content. It's rather busy, compresssion-heavy production coming across as flat and somewhat one-dimensional, with the lack of emotional engagement or real soul-baring making for a frustrating listen - especially since acts such as LCD Soundsystem have taken much of Gang Of Four's blueprint and made something much more innovative and exciting from it than what is offered up here, mixing the dark, resigned social commmentary with something that is often genuinely emotive. As the title of the vocoder-ruined, post-rock leaning eighth track states, it was never gonna turn out too good.