release date: Apr. 6, 1981
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,58]
producer: Modern English
label: 4AD Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Gathering Dust" - 4. "Move in Light" - 5. "Grief" - 9. "Dance of Devotion"
Studio debut album by Colchester-based quintet Modern English is a self-produced 9-track album. The band consists of Robbie Grey on vocals, Gary McDowell on guitar and backing vocals, Mick Conroy on bass and backing vocals, Stephen Walker on keyboards, and with Richard Brown on drums.
Stylistically, it's evident that the band owes a great deal to other bands of the era - and in particular Joy Division, The Sound, Bauhaus and Killing Joke. ME both plays a simplistic and energetic post-punk incorporating gothic rock and certain industrial rock elements. "Gathering Dust" sounds like a clone of Bauhaus and The Sound. A track like "Move in Light" is almost a rip-off from early Joy Division and listening to "Grief" as it kicks in after 2 mins. is unthinkable without "Atmosphere" also by Joy Division, AND "A Viable Commercial" (track 7) is just another JD clone - this time like a lesser copy of "Atrocity Exhibition". The album closer, "Dance of Devotion" sounds like an attempt to produce something made by Killing Joke. A similar approach may be utilized to find sources to every other composition on the album, which ultimately makes this debut boast of very little originality.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]
