New Model Army

New Model Army's 2005 album reimagined and reborn First time ever on vinyl & including 4 additional tracks In stores November 20th via earMUSIC

Any day that brings a new NMA album "is a good day." Not only because Justin Sullivan's Bradford, England band has released only 11 proper albums in 29 years (four '80s, three '90s, four 2000s), but because his/their quality control is so ludicrously high. Since 1983's debut "Bittersweet" single, every disc has merited deep appreciation. Never pinned down song to song, let alone album to album or decade to decade, they explore a cornucopia of historic rock influence, yet their albums don't feel like shuffle play.

New Model Army are an English post-punk/alternative rock band who formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1980 by its lead singer and main composer Justin Sullivan and one of his longest term band members, Robert Charles Heaton Their lyrics are often poetic, but express political and humanitarian messages.

New Model Army's ideologies have hardened over the years, and become unbreakable. Twenty-five years of fight will do that. But the band has inevitably matured over that time, too. 2000's tensely melodic Eight proved it, and 2005's Carnival continues the battle. Justin Sullivan's lyrics are still sharp-edged and poetic – he's a passionate social critic, but will never shout from an ivory tower. In "BD 3" he listens and watches from his house as his town changes all around him; for the restless, listless youth smoking weed and listening to 2Pac, it's less a hometown than a holding pattern.

This live offering captures the very essence of New Model Army: forceful, determined and uncompromising, the band played with a passion and fury equaled by few. The title of the album is an anagram of the band's name and a useful summation of their brew of punk and folk, punctuated by a driving bass with a dash of hard rock and atmospheric synth. Recorded on tour in Germany and England during the summer of 1990, 11 of the 16 songs are culled from the Impurity and Thunder and Consolation albums.

The band's first (and last) album for Epic records, was powered by the familiar New Model Army themes – a world out of control, the hope and despair of inevitable change, and the fury of the dispossessed – all treated with customary vitriol, yet an undercurrent tugs at the listener. Justin Sullivan's lyrics are even more personal and pointed; instead of merely observing and commenting, he seems to be searching on this album. This bundle of songs garnered more attention in the U.S. from the inclusion of instructions (freely available on the Internet) for making a nuclear bomb with the first single, "Here Comes the War." "White Light" is a great example of the tribal beliefs that the band was proud to present, which is in some ways a sister song to "White Coats" and "I Love the World" from the Thunder and Consolation album.

To their impassioned cult of fans, New Model Army were one of the best post-punk outfits Great Britain ever produced. Combining the gut-level force of punk with the anthemic political fervor of U2 and the Alarm, as well as the urban protest folk of Billy Bragg, NMA sounded like few other bands mining similar post-punk territory. Their attack was hard, spare, and precise, but as time wore on, they were just as likely to deliver modern-day folk-rock replete with acoustic guitar, violin, and harmonica.

In October 1980 three musicians took to the stage in their hometown of Bradford to play a gig under the name New Model Army. Led by frontman and songwriter Justin Sullivan, this was the start of a remarkable journey which, almost 40 years on, has seen New Model Army develop a fervent worldwide fanbase and reach multiple milestones of both creative and commercial success.