Gang of Four What Happens Next (Metropolis/Membran) Two stars
With their 1979 debut album Entertainment!, Gang of Four secured themselves a perennial place in the lists of greatest LPs of all time, and inspired the likes of Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand with their angular, propulsive sound, Situationist artwork and Marxoid lyrics. So the arrival of a new Go4 album is always worth paying attention to. What Happens Next doesn't herald a return to form, alas. The only original member remaining is Andy Gill, whose guitar still sounds in places here like it's strung with barbed wire. But the rhythms are uninteresting and the songs don't really go anywhere. What it is most reminiscent of is industrial goth metal from the 1990s. What happens next is the next track starts, then the next one, then the next, until it ends – having failed to engage at all. If you don't already have it, get Entertainment! instead.
kmccardle@thenational.ae