Send "Future of the Left " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Despite their name, Future of the Left aren't caught up in politics, but it would be nice if they were. Triangulating toxic levels of intelligence, humor, and aggressiveness, they're exactly the kind of band who could be speaking truth to power. But, for the most part, Andy Falkous forgoes highfalutin political statements and just tells it like it is to us regular schmoes, at the risk of sounding like a jerk. But because even expert-level misanthropes have to deal with mundane problems like label woes (they never really fit on 4AD anyway) and lineup turbulence, the Polymers Are Forever EP is the first we've heard from the gleefully malevolent Welshmen since 2009's bulldozing Travels With Myself and AnotherWith a full-length due next year, these six songs allow FOTL a relatively risk-free chance to regroup and familiarize themselves with some older inventory. Polymers isn't a total overhaul from the taut and punishing Travels, but it does dial back tempos and lean far more heavily on blaring arcade synthesizers-- starting with 2007's Curses, it was the easiest thing to point out when differentiating FOTL from the unimpeachable Mclusky. The title track retains Travel's blunt-force rhythms, but the structure leaves enough for the keyboards to add barbed texture and for an unusually campy Falkous to go ham, so to speak; adopting a nasal vowel-stretching honk to berate science's quick fixes, it's a scenery-chewing, karaoke rendering of Ozzy's coked-out nadir. It's understandable to focus on Falkous' lyrics, yet "Polymers" flashes compositional chops that are often overlooked in discussing FOTL, as it bisects into a nagging, hooky first half that leads to a mantra of stuttering syntax that becomes subtly anthemic. Likewise, the best parts of Polymers sonically echo its leader: I didn't think a band could sound sarcastic as opposed to being it, but FOTL play with mean-spirited humor. Check the teeter-tottering polka of "New Adventures" that seems to exist solely to mock Falkous' woeful heroin addicts and born losers, or the intentional mispronunciation of a directive to a plastic surgeon-- "Bob, do it"-- used for an off-beat "bah-bah-bah-do-do" chorus on "Polymers Are Forever." Obviously, Falkous runs the show, and it's often hilarious, usually bilious, and almost always quotable. He might be too good at it, actually: While "New Adventures" is chock-full of enough great set-ups to spawn a dozen comic rants, the song itself plays as a loosely related chain of bon mots instead of a cogent narrative. Likewise, "With Apologies to Emily Pankhurst" hurtles forth with a velocity that can obscure a rhyme of pure gold like, "I fear most women like I fear tomorrow-- absolutely/ I can't let something as French as fear determine this insecurity." But when "destroywhitchurch.com" and "My Wife Is Unhappy" take turns into dead-eyed, tensile spoken-word somewhere between Slint and Pulp, they're too obscured in both subject matter and emotion to really be more than just admirably clever....full text |
| Bbc |
| A six-track EP preceding an album due in early 2012, Polymers Are Forever is the first new material in over two years by brash, comedic Welsh rock quartet Future of the Left. This stretch has been forced upon them somewhat by label and line-up issues. They parted ways last year with 4AD, and have eventually been given shelter by Xtra Mile – once the home of Frank Turner’s Million Dead, who featured Julia Ruzicka, the newest FOTL member. This certainly isn’t the sound of a shaken band though: time away from the studio has seen the members dig further into their unclassifiable, noisy nook. It also means they’ve now been an active concern longer than McLusky, FOTL vocalist Andrew Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone’s warmly recalled ex-band. On Polymers Are Forever’s opening two songs, the title-track and With Apologies to Emily Pankhurst, the synthesiser that initially distinguished them from McLusky is more prominent than ever before, throwing out crunchy sci-fi distortion on the former and imitating the wild organs of 60s garage on the latter. While the EP is not a complete overhaul of the band’s sound – Falkous’ semi-comprehensible mini-stories are alternately spoken and yelled, with frequent backing vocals; the bouncy New Adventures could have slotted comfortably onto either of their first two albums – there’s an evident effort by FOTL here to avoid simply returning to what they know. destroywhitchurch.com (Whitchurch is an inoffensive district of Cardiff, FOTL’s home city) is the longest song, at nearly six minutes, and moves raucously through styles. Beginning as a taut, punkish jangle, it builds to a noisy crescendo and then drops to the sort of uneasy low-key strum that is often associated with Slint. Falkous’ monologue displays a lyrical dexterity comparable to Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit, in that contempt for his subject matter is conveyed chiefly by mentions of cultural mediocrities (insurance salesmen; Honda Civics) rather than actual insults. This has been one of the vocalist’s primary attributes since McLusky – being ‘very British’ but not self-consciously so; taking absurdist snatches of phrase and making them earworm choruses – but Future of the Left are becoming ever more intriguing musically, to boot....full text |
| Punknews |
| Future of the Left have posted a stream of the entirety of their new EP, Polymers are Forever due out on November 15th, 2011 via the band's new label home at Xtra Mile Recordings. The release marks the label's expansion into North America with a simultaneous release planned on both sides of the Atlantic. The song is also set to appear on the album The Plot Against Common Sense, which will be released in early 2012....full text |
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