Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The blueprint for controlled chaos is one that should be taken as a signal for a revolution but at times is lost in the mayhem of disturbed memory, the chaos losing its impetus because anarchy doesn’t fit well into the thoughts of the majority; the tinge of revolution, just enough to change a few things but in the end it all comes down to not offending all on your side.

For Skunk Anansie, arguably one of the most interesting bands to have come out of the 1990s, their latest album Anarchtecture is more than a draft, a proposal of what could be but an actual scheme in which music should be designed to infiltrate down the resistance to change. It has worked before, the signature tunes of the period from which they emerged being seen by many as more motivating and remarkable than those being put out by the so called pop rock rivals, and it will work again as the songs from the album get under the skin and be seen for the attention-grabbing aura for which they hold.

Anarchy isn’t just the state of lawlessness, the favourite buzzword of the politician trying to keep a supposed moral voice un-quivering and unwavering in the wind, it is though at all times just the glimpse of a state of mind being changed, the one order of disaffection of what goes on around you and the need to see it from a different perspective, an altered viewpoint and in Skunk Anansie, that viewpoint is on offer more so now than ever.

With tracks such as Baby Is Your Curse, the incredibly cool Death To The Lovers, That Sinking Feeling and the melancholic denial that ravages in the shortness of breath felt by the listener in the album’s final offering I’ll Let You Down, Skunk Anansie really show the meaning of control and rebellion. Each song is captivated and captive but one who knows how to break the bonds into which the lyric is placed and set it free, the blueprint is after all only the beginning, in the end the plan is always to roam free.

A wonderful return by one of the seminal acts of the 1990s and one to whom the years and the albums in between have not diminished the enjoyment of.

Ian D. Hall