In 1997, I went to my first festival – Reading. On the opening day, the Vans Warped Tour had taken over one of the marquees. It was hot, sweaty, and featured skull-crushing sets from the likes of Sick of It All and Pennywise. Among the bands that set the tent afire that day were A, who were just in the process of promoting their youthful debut, How Ace Are Buildings. They were awesome and, over the ensuing years became something of a festival favourite of mine, returning in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, before dropping off the radar somewhat around the time of Teen Dance Ordinance. Since then, the band have appeared intermittently, but fans have had to wait a remarkable 21 years for a fifth album.
And so to Prang and a look at what has changed in the world of A.
Well, kind of nothing and everything! On the one hand, the band still have an innate gift for crafting earworms that are only slightly less invasive than the weird slug things Khan bandied about in Star Trek II (what an oddly specific reference…) On the other hand, a certain sense of experience has inevitably crept into the lyrics, an occasional moment of darkness catching you unaware amidst the fizzing guitars. As such, the band have pulled off the impressive feat of keeping much of what made them so popular back in the late 90s whilst allowing their age to catch up with them, keeping their myriad fans on board in the process.
Not that the opening tracks gives too much away. Frenetic opener Hello Sunshine has a humungous riff offset by a whimsical melody that deftly mixes EMF and Blur. It’s followed by the self-deprecating Walkover, which finds Jason listing all the blustering assholes currently dominating the world’s powerbases, including “that bellend from SpaceX”. Sharply observed lyrically, its brisk riff and taut percussion harks back to How Ace Are Buildings, making you wonder at just how damn vital A sound in 2026. Then there’s the indie-pop of Bring On The Likes, which treads a line between 13-era Blur (especially with those gospel vocals on the chorus) and the pop-punk-infused Hi Fi Serious.
Not everything is so breezy. Shit Summer may have a cracking melody, but it finds Jason worrying about his brother, missing his kids, and facing an existential crisis that no manner of past success can abate (“did you notice the Grammy in the back of my profile shot?”). it’s followed by the biting All In, which lists all the fads people cling on to over a splenetic, mid-tempo riff that is all the heavier for the dip in pace. In contrast, Techno Viking is a surprisingly direct punk rocker that harks all the way back to those heady Warped Tour days, the guitars so mired in distortion you start to worry for your speakers.
Rather lighter of touch, the nostalgic Kings Of Lowestoft finds Jason recalling life before the band got signed over a ramshackle indie backing that’s as much Pulp as Pennywise. If the driving indie rock of Comment Leaver feels like it’s taking aim at low-hanging fruit, it’s set to a brilliantly realised backing that nods to long-lost indie rockers Strangelove, pausing only to steal the drum break from Blur’s Top Man along the way.
With the album nearly over, the blistering Back To The Shop is a full-on rocker with a gloriously fuzzy riff at its core. It leaves the memorable pop-punk of Lifeline to round things out with one of the album’s best choruses just as the band are out the door.
And that’s it. Ten tracks dispatched with cheery economy in just under forty minutes and, for the most part, leaving you both strangely giddy and a touch nostalgic for those halcyon days when entire tents moved as one to the sound of Nothing. It’s a worthy come back and it shows that, even some twenty years after the fact, A still have plenty to say. 8/10
Interesting side note: before I wrote this postscript, the review came in at 666 words. Proof that the devil has all the best tunes?
