The original wave of Punk music wasn’t just purely The Sex Pistols vs The Clash, no matter if you like either or both bands or not. There were also some other brilliant musicians from the late 1970s that aimed to put a middle finger towards Disco music and other contemporary musical trends of the time that were increasingly unrealistic. Punk’s ethos was about keeping Rock music simple, and one of the best bands to do so was the Buzzcocks. By this point, the band were about to call it a day, despite being massively influential and historically relevant within the original Punk music scene. This is their last album and is not seen to be as good as the others before it. Still, let’s take a listen here and see what we have got.

Paradise launches into a very simple and straightforward tune that is aggressive, and straight to the point. The guitar riffs here are excellent, and although the Buzzcocks were a Punk band, they are better described as an aggressive Pop music guitar group. There are some pseudo-Surf Rock guitar parts here, hollering and some great and simple music present for one to enjoy. If you live in Florida and like Punk music, this should be your best listening point. Nonetheless, this does sound really quite simple and punchy. A great start to this album.

Sitting ‘Round At Home sounds like an interesting song from the start, with single-note guitar riffing, a flanger heavy drenched vocal part, quickly entering into a fast and thrashy tune about sitting at home, wasting time away. This is perfect for those slackers who just don’t feel up to doing much with their lives. This isn’t the greatest song by the group, but what it lacks quality wise it makes up for in terms of musical assault. Nonetheless, this does sound very interesting and cool to listen to. An interesting and powerful tune, it ends with thrashy drums, repeated vocals and some good guitar playing. Not too bad.

You Say You Don’t Love Me is one of the better cuts from this album. It’s a piece of male love and romance (ironically, for a Punk band) that sounds really minimal, well played and pleasant to listen to. The Buzzcocks do deserve praise for their simple and listenable musical approach, and this song is about loving someone who doesn’t share such romanticism and feelings towards a man. There is a slow guitar solo here that does sound quite fresh, and this is a bit more textural than your average Punk tune. Still, that didn’t stop other Punk contemporaries such as The Jam from making even more processed songs than this. A really good tune, all the same, this is a rewarding listen. A decent tune from this album.

You Know You Can’t Help It is a loud, powerful and energetic listening experience from the start. It’s a really great song about lust and dirty feelings, and sounds supercharged, the sort of thing that makes sense if played in a V8 car of some sort. A really impressive and wonderful listen, this is more along the lines of Mod Rock than anything Punk really was about, but still, it sounds audibly interesting and impressive, especially if you are a fan of Punk music. Wonderful to listen to, this sounds like an intense and energetic joy to listen to. The guitar solo towards the end is really manic, good job overall.

Mad, Mad July begins with some warped tape and drums leading into a rather bad song with screaming here. To be honest, the screaming could have been rethought. Still, it’s okay, just not as impressive as the music could be. Regardless, this is an okay effort musically but points to the fact that the band were losing their direction at this point. The alternating bass guitar riff is a bit strange, too. Some excellent and simple guitar playing here is quite nice, though. Aside from that, you may wish to skip this song, but all the same, it’s not outright bad, just could have been easily rethought. Good tune to hear in any case, this does have some impressive drum work towards the end. Maybe the Buzzcocks did need a break from the relentless pressures of being in a band. It ends with chaotic guitars and drum fills aplenty.

Raison D’Etre begins with some drum rolls, nicely overdriven guitar riffs and is a better song than the last tune before it. It is relatively catchy and is about a disappointing relationship at hand. This song is a better listen from this album, and it continues the relatively simple and straightforward style of the Buzzcocks. This sort of music would have appealed to teenagers and the like around this time. There is a melodic guitar solo that, quite frankly, isn’t the best playing here and sounds underwhelming in the history of guitar based music. Really good to hear anyway, but perhaps not great. There are some wailing leads and reverberation on these leads to conclude with. Weird, but quite good.

I Don’t Know What To Do With My Life begins with a drum lead-in, and launches into a good song about the difficulties of indecision within one’s life. A really good and classic Pop/Rock song that sounds really great, this is simple but effective Punk music that has a great deal of musical momentum about it. The Buzzcocks still had it somewhat together as a group, and this is a perfect musical antidote to indecision. Although it is a little repetitive, it is really enjoyable. A Fender style guitar solo is present in this song, and this tune sounds really great, through and through. Another classic Pop tune that has been rather overlooked in the history of music, this simply works very well. Thoroughly fun.

Money begins with a great drum riff, some weird guitar riffs and some rather ordinary production values here. Safe to say that this isn’t a Pink Floyd cover song. Instead, it is a song about nothing in particular, and there is much more emphasis on the music than the lyrics in this song. Nonetheless, this works well and although this isn’t the greatest album ever, it still lasts well to this day, by this point. A bit too slow length wise, the guitar solo section is rather lengthy here, this is a good tune that is enjoyable enough if you like Punk music with Pop overtones.

Hollow Inside sounds a lot like early Joy Division at the beginning here, launching into a spacey sounding guitar led tune. A cool listening experience, this sounds interesting for what it is, that is until launches into a fairly mediocre tune that is quite repetitive. This could have been dropped from the album, but it wasn’t, sadly. The guitar riffs are pretty good, but the rest of the song is a joke. In any case, this tune lacks magic and musicality within. A really underwhelming musical listen after a while. Also, this is far too long at nearly five minutes in length for such a song. In any case, this is pretty naff. A real drag of a tune, and something that Buzzcocks fans should avoid. Not really good, at all. The outro is lacking as well. Avoid this, and you’ll be okay. It finally ends with a long outro.

A Different Kind Of Tension begins with some awful guitar chords and enters into another terrible song that doesn’t need to be heard. It seems that the Buzzcocks did not function very well musically by this point, and this is a good representation of why so. A dull and awful tune, complete with a robotic voice throughout, this is a very good example of where quality control was avoided with a Rock group on the second half of an album. Pretty pathetic and mind-numbingly dull, the vocals, sound effects and guitars do not sound great here. Still, this is an awful song and by this point, the Buzzcocks were officially done. Definitely not worth the four-and-a-half-minute time span here, this is thoroughly unimpressive. An annoying and dirge sounding tune, please do not listen to this song. It is headache inducing. It ends with a bunch of watery sound effects on guitars, before finally fading out. Dull.

I Believe is a seven minute plus long song, that actually sounds fairly good. It’s an extended Pop/Rock piece that really sounds quite good. It is a political/religious statement against such intellectual forms of thinking. Let’s face it, the world today is increasingly divided over such concepts and worrisome trends in such thought based processes. The song is well-written, catchy and worth its weight in power, playing and gold. “There is no love in this world, anymore!” is sung here. This music is perfect for those of you who need some power, energy and intelligent lyrics in Punk music. A catchy, enjoyable and clever tune, this is definitely one of the better songs to listen to if you need a good dose of the Buzzcocks. The chorus has different lyrics every time. This song has a point that is true about life, what you believe in, you essentially get. A really good listen, all the same, this song is definitely worth the seven minutes of listening. The second half of this song is a great repetition of the chorus with some great sonic shifts and fast bass guitar work here. This song gets fairly intense towards the end, with some great singing that sounds very John Lydon style here. A really cool and interesting listening experience, this sounds like an enjoyable jam throughout. Nice tune.

Radio Nine is less than a minute long and begins with an old radio being adjusted, with a snippet of a previous Buzzcocks song (guess which one it is). This eventually has another bit of random music by the group for this song, and the song and album conclude here.

This is a fairly average listen, even from a band such as the Buzzcocks. Some songs on it are really excellent and listenable, but there are some downright stinkers on this album release as well. Therefore, the output on this release is highly uneven. Should you listen to this album? Only if you are a big Punk music fan, or a fan of the Buzzcocks as well. These guys have albums and compilations that are, quite frankly, much better.

Too much of a mish-mash musically to be enjoyable.

6/10