Séance
Fullertone, 2020
8/10
There sure is no shortage of punk supergroups these days, but few have resumes as impressive as Professor And The Madman. Consisting of Alfie Agnew (Adolescents, D.I.), Sean Elliott (D.I., Mind Over Four), Paul Gray (The Damned, Eddie & The Hot Rods, U.F.O.) and Rat Scabies (The Damned), the legends approach this effort like a classic rock concept album, where the story is about friends who hold a séance for the purpose of saying goodbye to friends who have passed.
“All The Lonely Souls” starts the album with some warm atmosphere and sounds indebted to much earlier decades with a dreaminess to it as Elliott’s vocals draw us in, and “Séance” follows with their punk roots firmly intact on the buzzing, bristling rocker that’s not short on gritty melody, either.
Closer to the middle, “Child’s Eyes” offers throbbing basslines from Gray amid some post-punk ideas in the busy, bouncy delivery, while “Time Machine” recruits piano on an eccentric version of power-pop fun with Agnew’s pipes at the helm. The cleverly titled “Two Tickets To Afterlife”, one of the album’s best, then displays the vast talent of the rhythm section on the firm rock template where Scabies’ drumming is superb.
Deeper still, “Greeting From The Other Side” is an initially calmer moment of retro-rock that builds into a tense execution, and the brief “New World” exits the listen with just warm acoustic guitar amid hazy vocals that touch on prog-rock.
An extremely eclectic listen that embodies psyche-rock, classic rock, power-pop and, of course, punk, fans of names like Bowie, Wilson, Costello and even Waters will certainly be impressed with Professor And The Madman’s most varied record to date.
Travels well with: Sloan- Commonwealth; The Damned- Machine Gun Etiquette