The rapid decline of the NME was palpable. From late 2015 until earlier this year, it was little more than an entertainment rag, a tabloid version of Shortlist. It really died in summer 2015, when it stopped being a paid-for magazine. Its last issue a celebration of its history, so it’s fitting that the last band to take the coveted…cover was Slaves.
Kent’s finest represented everything the NME once stood for: aggression, passion and a punk ethos that is too pervading to be anything other than pure. Their last album, Take Control, whilst not exactly a mis-step, didn’t push them to the heights that were justifiably anticipated after the promise of their debut Are You Satisfied?. Released in 2016, the sophomore effort may have suffered from the its title, Take Back Control having certain negative connotations to the more pro-European music fan.
Whilst speculation, it would be incredibly ironic if that was the case as Slaves deliver the most pertinent anti-establishment rhetoric heard in rock music for years on Bugs, despairing about ‘another let-down generation’ and ’inaccurate information’. The vitriol towards certain elements of society continues on Magnolia, its title taken from the most common colour of wall in the UK, with allusions to sides of buses. Needless to say, it’s all backed by ferocious drums and nuclear guitars. First single Cut And Run is Slaves of old, it being lyrically repetitive in both verse and chorus without needing anything more.
Although succinct at 9 tracks (considerably shorter than Take Control’s 14), Acts Of Fear And Love isn’t just all ferocity. Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice makes an appearance on Daddy, adding her usual breathy vocals to a lament (by Slaves’ standards) about the pressures of fatherhood. Structured only around a meandering guitar, it’s a pleasant draw of breath after the bludgeoning of the senses provided by the opening numbers. Recent single Chokehold has the lyrical content of a ballad, singer/drummer Isaac Holman dealing with the age-old themes of how fragile the male ego is in the aftermath of a broken relationship. But a ballad it ain’t.
The album has echoes of some of Greater London’s previous heroes; The Lives They Wish They Had recalls Graham Coxon’s more frustrated moments in Blur, and the title-track resembles some of that foursome’s experimental elements from their self-titled effort. And, of course, the spirit of The Clash and the Sex Pistols runs throughout. As we all know by now, the band consists of only two members, but like The White Stripes before them the cacophony made is nevertheless impressive.
There’s nothing like British punk. At its height it changed the country – we could do with such a revolution again. Unfortunately, we are all a bit too wise and cynical these days to fall for it, at least those of us that look up from our phones. But in a time when established rock bands are shamefully distancing themselves from our present political and social quagmire (we’re looking at you, Manic Street Preachers), we need the message to be loud and clear.
Compelling and compulsive, Acts Of Fear And Love takes no prisoners whilst grabbing that megaphone gleefully.