Future Of The Left – ‘The Plot Against Common Sense’

Their finest collection of songs yet

Previously, Future Of The Left made a strong case for the efficient, unindulgent three-piece being the platonic ideal of rock band setups. The three years in between second album ‘Travels With Myself And Another’ and this, its follow-up, have seen them expand to a quartet – yet the Cardiff group continue to have the practice of synthed-up, earwormy postpunk archness locked down. Strictly speaking, ‘The Plot…’’s 50-minute running time is probably 10 more than desirable, but this is still FOTL’s finest collection of songs yet. Andrew Falkous’ keyboards, like Les Savy Fav to the power of Devo, take centre stage; guitars crunch rustily and soar dramatically at various times. The lyrics, meanwhile, continue to move FOTL up two or three rungs of excellence: a world of unlikely celebrity anecdotes and exasperation at society’s dimness. “I have seen into the future/Everyone is slightly older” is this writer’s pick for its textbook bathos.

Noel Gardner

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