Hard, by Gang of Four (CD on EMI)

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In the late 70s, Gang Of Four designed a new type of danceable rock music. Their Damaged Goods EP (1978) helped usher in the postpunk era while their debut LP Entertainment! (1979) remains one of the period’s trailblazing releases. With subsequent albums Solid Gold (1981), Songs Of The Free (1982) and Hard (1983), they refined the idea that politicised rock’n’roll could be mischievous and melodic, accessible yet exciting.

Songs Of The Free, the band’s third album and first to feature Sara Lee following original bassist Dave Allen’s departure in 1981, was the closest they’d come to conventional pop, thanks to Mike Howlett’s crashing but crisp, shiny production and guitarist Andy Gill and singer Jon King’s increasing ability to sugar their bitter messages with candy-coated melodies. There’s even, in the Falklands-anticipating I Love A Man In Uniform, a near-hit single – only a ban by the BBC prevented this clubland favourite from charting higher. Elsewhere, on Call Me Up and the Joseph Conrad-referencing We Live As We Dream, Alone, GOF continue to fuse feedback and funk to startling effect.

Hard may seem ironically titled in retrospect, given its concessions to the softer dance-pop styles of the period, but there are some great songs amid the then-de rigueur soulful female backing vocals, clinical machine beats and slapback bass. Despite the production sheen, I Fled moves with the urgency of old, A Man With A Good Car is a squealing delight, while Silver Lining thrills with its dub spaces and funk echoes. And if It Don’t Matter sounds like a period piece, it’s worth remembering that GOF were the original socialist funksters, enabling the likes of Wham! and Heaven 17 to exist.

1.     Is It Love
2.     I Fled
3.     Silver Lining
4.     Woman Town
5.     A Man With A Good Car
6.     It Don't Matter
7.     Arabic
8.     A Piece Of My Heart
9.     Independence

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