Album Review- The Newtown Neurotics- Cognitive Dissidents

A favorite band of mine that is a bit on the obscure side is the Newtown Neurotics. I discovered them on one of the many low budget Punk CD compilations in the 90s. The obvious introduction to the band is the compilation “45 Revolutions per minute” which collects their debut album (1983s Beggars Can Be Choosers and a few early singles). (As an aside, 45 Revolutions per Minute surely should be on the Album Covers with Sunglasses Rushmore with "Bikini Red" by the Screaming Blue Messiahs, "Short Back N Sides" by Ian Hunter and any Graham Parker album) The band fits into the British punk bands that would sprout up in the late 70s and early 80s with similarly underappreciated groups like the Lurkers, Chelsea, Penetration and Anti-Pasti. The band had a strong socialist messages like Billy Bragg and the Redskins. The band’s strength besides the personal political angle was a tremendous sense of melody- continuing from the melodic punk of the Jam and the Buzzcocks I did not and have not done much more than exploring the album but the band did continue, at least somewhat, dropping “Newtown” and releasing at least two studio albums as the “Neurotics” and leader Steven Drewett releasing at least one Afro punk album in the early 90s as the Indestructible Beat and a solo record credited under his own name in 2014. Like so many similar bands, it’s hard to determine the correct number of albums because of the possibility of compilations, EP releases and live albums. I have seen “8 albums” listed in reviews but I believe the number of proper recordings from all the above projects are four. The Neurotics aren’t entirely off the radar in America. My favorite Music writer (certainly in terms of having the most similar tastes) Jack Rabid has covered them in detail over the years in his magazine The Big Takeover. In 2022, the band reunited to release the fantastically titled Cognitive Dissidents. If you have a live music venue around you, you probably know punk bands never die and tour forever and maybe even release new albums. Though there are exceptions (there are some great late era New Model Army songs) these albums are not generally very ground breaking. Cognitive Dissidents isn’t much different than expected but it is a fun record. The political lyrics are still very much in play (opening track is called Climate Emergency for a start. “Dumb” creates a word “conspirituality”) and melodic punk is still the forte (“I Get On Your Nerves” and “Liar Liar” could fit easily on the new Diggle-led Buzzcocks album). None of the songs reach the heights of the band’s classic singles, but it is hard to complain about Cognitive Dissidents which is a better late era punk band albums and is a fitting additional chapter to an unique band.