Can there really be a Buzzcocks without Pete Shelley? The singer-songwriter, who died in 2018, fronted the band for 41 years, writing or co-writing hundreds of songs including such copper-bottomed classics as “What Do I Get?” and “Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’tve)”. His de...
Can there really be a Buzzcocks without Pete Shelley? The singer-songwriter, who died in 2018, fronted the band for 41 years, writing or co-writing hundreds of songs including such copper-bottomed classics as “What Do I Get?” and “Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’tve)”. His death leaves a massive hole. And yet, lest we forget, Shelley himself stepped into a similar space when original singer Howard Devoto left in 1977, leaving the lead guitarist to transition to singer-guitarist, main songwriter and frontman.
The rest is history, and while the lineup has survived numerous changes to the rhythm section over the years, guitarist (originally bassist) and vocalist Steve Diggle – who now steps up to solely front the band – has hardly been a slouch. Along with numerous co-writes with Shelley, he wrote and sang the likes of the hurtling “Harmony In My Head”, “Autonomy” and “Love Is Lies”, the acoustic ballad that threw such an effective, bittersweet curveball into the middle of 1978’s Love Bites. Having now been a Buzzcock for longer than anyone including Shelley and having taken on more vocal and songwriting duties as the years progressed, Diggle has earned his late colleague’s blessing to take over the ship.
Now 67, the Mancunian instinctively understands what Buzzcocks are about. Recorded during the pandemic, their first album since 2014’s underwhelming The Way is packed with trademark hurtling guitar runs, piercing lead guitar lines and machine gun drum rolls, and most songs reliably clock in at under three minutes. What’s missing, of course, is Shelley’s unique vocal – fey, arch, wry, knowing, romantic, wounded and, let’s be honest, irreplaceable. Diggle’s is a more straightforward rasp, gutsy and slightly nasal, suited to “Harmony In My Head” but not, say, “You Say You Don’t Love Me”. Still, here he’s written songs which sit comfortably within his range, and if there are moments when you find yourself wistfully imagining Shelley singing them, that’s testament to their quality. But equally, writing on his own in lockdown, Diggle has brought an unexpectedly emotional, often beautifully elegiac quality that makes Sonics In The Soul relevant and relatable.
These 11 songs capture a man at a time in his life struggling to make sense of a rapidly changing, sometimes frightening new world. The opening title track – a “What Do I Get?”-style zinger – initially appears to be a celebration of delirium, but is actually an admission of bewilderment: “All my dreams have hit the ground, with my senses out of control”. Another cracker, “Manchester Rain”, was inspired when Diggle met a young, hopeful band in a Mancunian doorway, and flashed back to his young self, with everything ahead of him. The lovely lead guitar line has a hint of 1978’s sublime “ESP”, but the guitarist has surely earned the right to recycle himself by now.
“You Changed Everything Now” is a classic Buzzcocks anthem about how people change or become estranged: “The world is looking out of place and the signs are written on your face and it’s me you want to replace”. With a bridge to die for, it’s a heartbreakingly glorious tune that could have slotted into the hallowed Singles Going Steady. Sonics In The Soul doesn’t always hit such heights, but there’s much to recommend. “Bad Dreams” is a jagged, “Nothing Left”-style anthem about recovery. “Nothingless World” has shades of the early Jam and IRS-era REM. “Just Gotta Let it Go”, a three-minute blast about frustration, could be Buzzcocks circa 1977, but “Everything Is Wrong” is another mellifluous gem, with contemporary themes of post-truth and fake news.
Lockdowns have audibly influenced the rather rudimentary “Don’t Mess With My Brain” and, more successfully, the effects-laden “Experimental Farm”, but the album increasingly gives way to philosophical and dystopian moods. There’s a hint of Joy Division darkness to “Can You Hear Tomorrow”, lyrically a sort of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” sigh at current politics (“Old centre parting, coming away at the seams”). Orwellian references abound in the deceptively cheerily chugging “Venus Eyes”, as Diggle searches for hope in the current “thought control reality”. Sonics In The Soul doesn’t always hit the spot and it’s a shame there’s no room for last year’s heartfelt tribute “Hope Heaven Loves You” (on the Senses Out Of Control EP). But there’s easily enough here to steer the trusty old craft into new, uncharted waters, just as Shelley wanted.