Singles

Future Of The Left - Fingers Become Thumbs!

Holly Cruise 25/01/2007

Rating: 4/5

When ex-members of distinctive bands form new bands it can be a disaster - removed from their previous bandmates they can sound like pale imitations of what they used to be, lacking perhaps the lyrical bite or tunefulness (if your band happen to be called Dirty Pretty Things or Babyshambles respectively). It can also sound like you are rehashing something which died for a reason, the end of your previous band was a hint to give up those old ways and do something new (useful advice if your name is John Squire).

But for those who left us too soon the return of old members with familiar tunes is forgivable. McLusky were a special band, not for them such vulgar things as attempts to sell lots of records or compromise on iota. It was all crunchy riffs and lyrics which were, frankly, so much better than 99% of other indie that it hurt. Abrasiveness and wit and (when they forgot they were meant to be belligerently not pop) songs which you could dance to, or sing along to, or love.

Thus there is space in the world for The Future Of Left, the new band of ex-McLusky singer (shouter?) Andy Falkous. The Future Of The Left sound very much like that McLusky who left us wanting a little bit more. The crunching riffs might crunch a little more thanks to an injection of members of Jarcrew, but the patterns, the swirling, spiralling nature of the songs remain. And those wonderfully perverse lyrics have stuck around to. B-side 'The Lord Hates A Coward' informs us, as calmly as possible against a hammering backdrop of guitars and drums, that "violence solved everything". It all sounds like the sort of thing the indie scene looked like it was going to lose. Sure, it'll never sell millions, but that's probably how they like it.