NEW MODEL ARMY- “From here”

Justin Sullivan and co retuned to form, of the highest level with their previous album ‘Winter’. Their new effort was conceived and recorded in a small island in Norway but the Brexit and the turbulence of the English society are all around this moody album. The pace has gone down to various songs. Sullivan has become more introspective and the isolation of the recording facility has its impact. On the other hand we have on of the songs we call instant classic in the from of “Where I am” a song about self preservation and self definition in our days of mass and fast consuming.

The feeling changes from the mesmerizing, slow paced “Passing through”, “Never arriving, “The weather” to the more modern punkish “End of days” till we reach the first big moment of the album the “The great disguise”, where Sullivan speaks freely and shamelessly …”last man standing, that’s the game I play the best…”. The ecology/self search “Conversation” gives a more than welcome emotionally charged break and we come to the masterpiece, the piece de resistance of the album στο κόσμημα του άλμπουμ το “Where I am” the song that put all the MBA ers and the financial analysts and psychologists to rest, in their rotten society of numbers and artificial problems. Believe in yourself and accept the reality, without been dragged to the consumers corner. The lyrics that could save the whole 00 generation «And everybody wants to be somewhere else, everybody wants to be someone else». But the band has more to say in the heavy guitar oriented “Watch and learn” and the magnificent “Maps” where the major question “if the end justifies the means “ raises its ugly head, but NMA decide they prefer to sail on the ship of fools. The more spacey

‘setting sun” will travel us away and the final song “From here” will have Sullivan sing “I’m the master of nothing…never wanted to leave a mark”. The anger and frustration for today, settles down by the end of the day and starts the contemplation of yesterday’s mistakes and the expectation of tomorrow.

8,5