The Pop Group, Citizen Zombie (Freaks R Us)
Confession time: much of the time, then and now, I have no idea what ranting Pop Group frontman Mark Stewart is on about. But I am damn sure it is reallly important. One of the most perturbing utterances on this, the band's first album in 35 years, is the repeated "Get in the car" on the track Shadow Child, one of many propelled - like seminal debut single She Is Beyond Good and Evil - by an irresistible funk backing, provided by guitarist Gareth Sager, bassist Dan Catsis and drummer Bruce Smith. As we found when the quartet showed up at Glasgow's ABC for Celtic Connections just over a year ago, these guys may be older but they are still on fire. Among their other fans is indie producer of now Paul Epworth, who is at the controls here and has also twiddled knobs for Adele. He has done a fine job too, with the title track carrying all the urgency of their late 70s work (and featuring Stewart at his most comprehensible to boot) and Mad Truth and s.o.p.h.i.a. being sonic chaos floor fillers of compelling danceability, in a sort of laser-eyed flailing fashion.
Keith Bruce
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article