Cognitive Dissidents is the new album that Newtown Neurotics recorded and worked on during lockdown. It tackles many of the issues of our day, with some historical insights that lead us to where we are now, a place they really don't like for many very good reasons. The album comes with some great artwork by Jon Langford. The band are Steve Drewett, Simon Lomond and Adam Smith, who has nothing to do with the institute that bears his name.
This album is not to be confused with the Newtown Neurotics Ep by the band Cognitive Dissidents that came out in 2018.
The album opens with Climate Emergency that sets out the bands stall for looking at the terrible state the world finds itself in, over crunchy guitars, pin sharp drumming, the questions come thick and fast, as they ask how we got here, no matter how desperate this subject is, they never forget to make sure this is still a catchy punk pop song right until the alarm rings to end the song.
Liar Liar (Pants On Fire) takes aim at the never-ending lies coming out of our politicians mouths. This is aimed as much at the prime minister, who was in power when this album arrived for me to review, as well as the two subsequent Prime Ministers, who have taken the role since with predictably dishonest intent, as Steve Drewett's vocals get angrier, they sound a bit more like Jello Biafra, while musically it's more like the Buzzcocks.
Take Your Dirty Hands Off My Town is all about the band's hometown of Harlow, what the idiot politicians have done to it, as well as all the other New Towns, that were built with utopian ideals, long since subsumed by vastly differing intents of modern politicians, this has plenty of bile, as the guitars rage away, they re-fight the battle against the National Front while drawing obvious parallels with Brexit.
Hope is they claim, there attempt at a James Bond theme, well not quite, this is a song of Hope that in the future we will have politicians who actually know how to tell the truth, while trying to make a better world for the many not the few.
Dumb is about the useful idiots, keyboard warriors spreading lies and half truths, as if they are gospel truths. As they wonder how we have come to this, it has the feel of early Billy Bragg, but with a punk band, as they shake their collective heads in consternation at some of the lies people swallow whole.
Hell In A Handcart takes a righteous swipe at fans of both Brexit and MAGA, this rages against all the idiocy of Trump and Johnson and all of there respective cheerleaders, from Bannon to Cummings and beyond, the vocals get angrier, more desperate as we are all dumbed down to a point when the idea of Johnson or Trump getting the top job again makes sense, here's hoping that never happens. They want us to stop it now and institute change, so time for a revolution then.
Stand With You is pop punk, that is trying to encourage us all to stand firm, bring down the establishment, so get together, find a way forward to a better world. As we all need to stand together during all the protests and strikes, we need to bring about change.
I Get On Your Nerves must be something Steve Drewett has been told a lot over the years, as his hectoring politics will always upset all the people that need upsetting, so if he pisses you off, you hate what he says, then he's done his job, the music is angry catchy Essex boy punk of the kind you should always expect from the Newtown Neurotics, this Ex-Essex boy is very happy to hear them back on good form. This song also has an almost dubby breakdown, as they make sure they have nothing in common with the ruling classes with the hatred they breed, as they go all Carly Simon on the final freakout.
Find out more at https://www.newtownneurotics.com/ https://li.sten.to/nncognitive https://www.facebook.com/newtownneurotics
