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A Certain Ratio: It All Comes Down to This review – punk-funk stalwarts on a euphoric high
The 13th album from the Manchester pioneers blends familiarity with no shortage of new ideas, spanning introspection to jubilance
Back when they were Joy Division’s Factory Records label mates, ACR’s pioneering punk-funk barely troubled the charts, but it has subsequently influenced artists from Happy Mondays to LCD Soundsystem. Where last year’s 1982 made great use of Ellen Beth Abdi’s hazily soulful vocals, here they strip themselves back to the core trio of Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson and bring in Fontaines DC/Wet Leg producer Dan Carey to marshal the songwriting and delicate balance between melody and grooves. If it’s hard to avoid a certain deja vu in the urban Manchester feel or Johnson’s signature drum fills, there are more bubbling electronics this time and the songs span a spectrum from introspection to euphoria.
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