There’s no truer demonstration of punk attitude than refusal to go away and desire to mutate with the times without going for conformism, and there’s no better example of such approach NEW MODEL ARMY‘s oeuvre. Currently celebrating four and a half decades of the ensemble’s continuous existence, Yorkshire musicians are still eager to experiment and, when needed, do a volte-face with regard to presentation of what they do. That’s why while the veterans’ last live album was recorded with an orchestra, an on-stage follow-up to 2023’s “Sinfonia” – or to their studio opus “Unbroken” from 2024, if that matters – will be as stripped-down as one can get.
What’s out today, on March 28th, has no strings, no keyboards and no redundant drums, because all of this can distract from the band’s pure rock ”n roll essence. The platter titled “SO36 Live” is a document of two Berlin nights that came right after the symphonic experiment, yet whereas the group’s set from July 16th, 2022 was preserved for posterity not only in audio but as video too, its results are released on DVD, CD set and vinyl – the first two formats also available as a single package, – the fruits of the second gig, when completely different songs were performed, can be obtained strictly as a download, with free code contained in the album’s deluxe limited editions. Quite good.
SO36 Live
Night One (DVD, CD and LP):
1, Bittersweet
2. Ambition
3. Lust For Power
4. Never Arriving
5. A Liberal Education
6. 1984
7. Inheritance
8. Angry Planet
9. Headlights
10. No Rest
11, Before I Get Old
12. The Hunt
13. Western Dream
14. Where I Am
15. Fate
16. Vengeance
17. Die Trying
18. Poison Street
19. Betcha
Night Two (download only):
1. Christian Militia
2. Watch And Learn
3. Lights Go Out
4. Whirlwind
5. No Greater Love
6. Believe It
7. Today Is A Good Day
8. Stranger
9. Snelsmore Wood
10. Vanity
11. One Bullet
12. 51st State
13. Frightened
14. Bad Old World
15. 125 MPH
16. Ballad Of Bodmin Pill
17. Stupid Questions
18. 225
