The Blue Aeroplanes – Anti-Gravity – Art Star – ASALB001 - ****

It's three decades since Gerard Langley first spieled professorial poetry over various combos of match-fit musicians, crafting kinetic explosions of mid-‘70s New York art-punk in the Avon delta.
The Blue Aeroplanes are heavier on their feet these days, but more muscular than before, and feature Rita Lynch as Langley's newfound vocal foil.

Where once they sounded like Television fronted by Philip Larkin, the Aeros' thoroughly baked tenth album posits the all-American grooves of Drive-By Truckers helmed by Prisoner era Patrick McGoohan. How many bands could pen a genuine autobiographical lyric about a failed collaboration with Angela Carter?
Few hardy perennials flower so fruitfully.

(26/6/11)