Musical Over Dose
is proud to present
Since January 2002

another new release, have fun

.: about release :.

Name       .:. New Model Army - Unbroken

Genre       :  Hard Rock
Source      :  CDDA
Type       .:. Album

Artist      :  New Model Army
Label       :  Earmusic (Edel)
Titel       :  Unbroken

Tracks      :  11
Playtime    :  45:15
Size        :  86,14 MB

Encoder     :  VBRNEW - LAME3.100 - V0
Quality     :  VBR kbps / 44.1kHz / Joint-Stereo
Bitrate     :  avg. 266kbps

[ Tracklist ]

01.First Summer After                                    04:13
02.Language                                              03:45
03.Reload                                                03:54
04.I Did Nothing Wrong                                   04:55
05.Cold Wind                                             05:27
06.Coming Or Going                                       03:35
07.If I Am Still Me                                      04:19
08.Legend                                                04:20
09.Do You Really Want To Go There                        03:32
10.Idumea                                                03:50
11.Deserters                                             03:25

Total  45:15 Min

There are few bands that have been around for over
40 years that can not only claim a solid
consistency, but also be enjoying not just a
renaissance of their music, but arguably their peak.
New Model Army’s last three albums (Between Dog and
Wolf (2013), Winter (2016) and From Here (2019))
have been stunning examples of how to write modern
rock songs whilst retaining their own distinctive
sound. It could be argued that this is down to one
man’s vision, Justin Sullivan being the main
songwriter and only constant member of NMA (not
forgetting Joolz who has been a constant source of
artwork and support), but NMA have always been a
band and one gets the feeling that Sullivan receives
fresh inspiration from each incarnation. What also
helps their longevity and importance is the sheer
poetic eye Sullivan has. Are many rock lyrics more
moving than 1989’s Green and Grey, and it continues
on this album with the observation on Deserters:
“Still these mornings I wake up singing/even if I
can’t remember why”. It’s both the artists curse and
blessing.

Whilst the previous three albums have been based
around a central, if loose, theme, Unbroken is more
disparate. This is likely due to the writing and
recording taking place over a long period of time,
with the process interrupted by both the delayed
40th Anniversary shows and the recent Sinfonia live
orchestral project. The sound is heavier than recent
releases, with an emphasis on power, but the
subtlety is still there and the sound is more to do
with the way the songs have been mixed by Tchad
Blake. The bass on this album is particularly
raucous, with a growl like a wounded tiger.

Opener, First Summer After, starts with a solo
guitar buzzing like a communication flowing,
stuttering down the lines, before the so familiar
voice and the beating, urgent drums start us on a
new album journey. The song has a feel of something
passing, a land lost it’s way, a searching, wistful
song. There are other songs with undercurrents of
something not quite tangible, like Cold Wind, with
its premonition of gathering evil, and Language
which, whilst extolling the virtue of words, is
imbued with loss and the belief that the chances
have now run dry.

There has always been a folk and tribal musical
leaning of the band. I Did Nothing wrong is folk
rock with an electro bass beat which gives the song,
about white collar crime where the criminals have no
blood on their hands but there is blood from the
consequences, a big, heavy feel. And with the Royal
Mail scandal in the news, it’s even more prescient.
There is a tribal beat on If I Am Still me, which
conjures a ceremony to investigate the core of self.
Sullivan sings: I have to see/If I am still me. You
can imagine him going out into the wilderness to
test himself. Idumea is a beautiful folk/gospel song
that invokes old protest songs, of the gathering of
oppressed peoples, all holding onto the belief that
all things will pass, by and by.

Whilst Idumea expresses Sullivan’s anger in a
hopeful way, he can also still be relied upon to
spit out his anger with venom. Reload opens with his
lone vocal declaring: If I have to see another
fucking union jack/flying on the orders of the
government/I’m gonna be sick. It’s a song about
money, and how money corrupts, with the pithy
observation that it’s only debt that trickles down.

The album closes with Deserters, which sounds like a
storm at the end of a heatwave, with moments of
power and reflection. It sums up the album well:
power and reflection.

Unbroken is eleven more songs from a band still on
top form. New Model Army continue to create music
that is passionate and poignant from everything they
see around them – just as  a poet can wite about a
post box and imbue it with something that we have
never seen before, causing us to view the everyday
in a new way.

What New Model Army create is a pagan spirituality,
which is in touch with this land’s past, present and
future. Long may they continue their journey.

https://www.newmodelarmy.org
https://www.facebook.com/NewModelArmyOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/newmodelarmy/
https://twitter.com/officialnma