Eddy Current Suppression Ring - All in Good Time

Australia's Eddy Current Suppression Ring, truly one of the best bands of the current century, are nothing if not demonstrative. Every song it seems blasts off with major chord riffing, intent on suggesting to the listener, 'So you think the last song was good'. Every one is played as if it's their last, as if they're five of the Magnificent Seven, haring hell for leather back into town for their final hurrah. There's something truly heroic about this.

They're back, with All in Good Time, an album released at the end of last year, their first for eight years, to little public acclaim. Does the world not know how good they are? I visited a friend in Nottingham a couple of weeks ago, went into a record shop with him on the Saturday morning and this was playing. It took me about five seconds to ask the guy behind the counter who it was and I wasn't remotely surprised when he told me.

All in Good Time doesn't really tell us anything about them that we didn't already know. They've laid down enough markers in their time. 'We're the gift that keeps on giving. Vicariously living...' they declare in erm Vicariously Living. When was the last time Noel Gallagher wrote a lyric anywhere near as good as that. Almost twenty five years, that's how long. Eddy Current Suppression Ring come on as idiot savants but they're actually saviours. If the recipe is this simple, how come so few bands cook up anything as good as this?

In many respects this is old school, untutored Punk Rock at its finest. But Punk at its rawest and smartest. The kind of stuff Stooges, Saints, Wire, Gang of Four and X specialised in back in the day. Cocksure, both barrels loaded. Virtually every track here astonishes. Sure they work from a formula but frankly it's one in no need of re-invention. 

This album comes too late and too soon. Too late to be in my best of rundown for last year and too soon to be in this year's. Pitchfork just gave it between 6 and 7. Ha! Pearls before swine. It's a quite glorious record. Utterly without restraint or reserve or safety net. If it's taken as a John the Baptist for what's in store musically for 2020 this is going to be quite some year!