After 2006’s light, poppy Rather Ripped, The Eternal offers a return to discord and polemic: “Anti-Orgasm” is out to “smash the moral hypocrisy”, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo chanting radical feminist slogans between cacophonic guitar shred-outs, while “Thunderclap For Bobby Pyn”, a tribute to Darby Crash of The Germs, eulogises the ’70s LA punk scene with almost religious terminology.

Good, but the exciting notion of a genuine career left turn feels increasingly unlikely.

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LOUIS PATTISON

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