Supergroups are not destined to last long, and CLASSIX NOUVEAUX were a supergroup of sorts – a supergroup in reverse, with roots in X-RAY SPEX and branches in ICEHOUSE and other prominent collectives – so the quartet’s career, having spun from 1979 to 1985, resulted in a mere three albums that, nevertheless, proved to be highly influential on a new-wave scene. The last of these platters appeared in November of 1983, and, since nobody really counted on the band’s comeback, it was a big surprise to find out the foursome, resurrected in 2021, deliver their fourth full-length studio offering four decades and three decades after “Secret” had been issued.
Battle Cry
The arrival of “Battle Cry” – that’s the title of this new record – is all the more surprising since the reformed ensemble’s first single, a fresh take on “Inside Outside” from their debut “Night People” of 1981 vintage, saw the release soon after the group’s Phoenix act, and its follow-up “Fix Your Eyes Up” surfaced a year later, so the ensuing silence couldn’t set fans’ expectation high. Yet now both songs are woven into the album’s context, alongside recently composed pieces and a reworking of “Never Never Comes” from this platter’s aforementioned predecessor, the track never played by the classic line-up of the English romantics who – vocalist and keyboard player Sal Solo, bassist and another ivories driver Mik Sweeney, guitarist Gary Steadman and drummer and saxophonist B.P. Hurding – sound like they haven’t been away for so long.
1. Prelude / Fix Your Eyes Up
2. Battle Cry
3. Wretched
4. Final Symphony
5. No Do Overs
6. Revelation Song
7. Never Never Comes
8. Interlude / Inside Outside
9. Colour Me The Sky
