Richard BodinFew bands in punk history balanced heart and bite like the Buzzcocks. Nearly five decades on, and following the loss of Pete Shelley, Attitude Adjustment arrives with the weight of legacy behind it — and expectations to match.
Teenage Kicks That Never Fade
Whenever I hear about The Buzzcocks, I have this special little feeling of excitement. Spoiler alert: I love the Buzzcocks. Always have, always will. Unfortunately I have managed to miss them whenever they toured near me… I’ve only managed to see them once in Paris in the mid-noughties, and boy that was awesome!
The Buzzcocks are this monumental punk band that unfortunately struggled to make it outside of the shadows of the two major punk-rock acts of their era: The Clash and The Sex Pistols. I still remember a witty remark by a friend of mine as we were reading some random interview with this question by an uninspired journalist. You know these type of question leading you to make some sort of choice and justify it: « Beatles or Rolling Stones ?», « Oasis or Blur? », « air or water ? »… Well this time it was « Clash or Sex Pistols »… My friend quipped « neither! I prefer the Buzzcocks, they are the true punks! ».
No Clash. No Pistols. Just Buzzcocks
He had a point. The Clash and The Sex Pistols were great of course, but they were also massive posers, which played a lot in their success. Whereas the Buzzcock, were coming from nowhere, looked like your random nerdy teenage neighbour. They didn’t look like rock stars, but they knew how to play music, come up with good melodies and write excellent lyrics that addressed every feeling by a teenager or a young adult facing the uncertainty of the world. I mean, seriously, who can beat “Orgasm Addicts”, “Sixteen Again” , “Boredom” or the awesome “Ever Fallen In Love? “
Still Standing, Still Strumming
Despite a hiatus between 1981 and 1989, the Buzzcocks are now coming up to almost a fifty years career. Unfortunately original frontman Pete Shelley passed away in 2018. But undeterred guitarist Steve Diggle is not one for calling it quits, and the band is still touring regularly. In 2021, the band released their first album without Shelley, Sonics In The Soul, and yet it kept a good powerful energy. And now, they are dropping their new effort: Attitude Adjustment, and well, I am sorry to admit that it does not live up to their standard.
Fuzz Without Fire
It doesn’t start too bad though. “Queen Of The Scene” is relatively decent. We find the Buzzcocks signature fuzzy guitars, the stomping rapid drums, and Diggle’s vocals are tight… Then “Games” follows… And immediately it feels sort of sluggish. It lacks of the energy that makes the Buzzcock’s reputation. Although the energy is there. Most tracks starts with very rapid guitars, stomping rhythms, but they quickly fall flat. Over filtered vocals tend to overpower the rest of the production.
Occasionnally an intro will wake something, a little spark of interest. The intro of “Poetic Machine Gun” kicks off like a good ol’ banger with this heavy and fuzzy guitar with the stomping rhythm. The vocals flows quite naturally, with a good pace. Later a whaling guitar opens “Just A Dream I Followed”, again reminiscent of their hey days.
But for a couple of decent songs, the rest feels very sluggish, sometimes muddy. Uninspired at best. “Tear Of A Golden Girl” could have been a good one, but the overpowering filtered vocals just ruined it for me. And ast the lyrics go « you can never ever come back » from that unfortunately. “One of The Universe” comes in two parts, that feel pretty identical — odd choice. They are probably here to highlight “All Gone To War”, an interesting acoustic ballad, one of the good song unfortunately again ruined in part by the vocals production. Towards the end of the album, “Break That Ball and Chain” is just painful to witness.
The Past Wins
There is something admirable about persistence. Steve Diggle’s refusal to let the Buzzcocks become a museum piece is, in itself, punk. Attitude Adjustment isn’t a disaster. Flashes of the old fire still spark here and there. But too often the record feels weighed down by muddy production and vocal choices that smother rather than sharpen the songs. Ultimately, it falls flat, which is a shame for a band whose legacy spans decades and has influenced so many in their wake.
Perhaps the real challenge isn’t writing new material; it’s escaping the shadow of a catalogue that still sounds urgent, wounded and alive nearly fifty years on. The Buzzcocks don’t need to compete with their past… But when your back catalogue includes songs like “Ever Fallen in Love?” and “Boredom”, comparisons are unavoidable.
This time, the past wins.
