Originally formed by former Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones in 1979, The Professionals enjoyed a turbulent three years, recording two albums (1980’s eponymous effort and 1981s I Didn’t See It Coming) before splitting in 1982. Spurred back into action in 2015 by the arrival of an archival box set (The Complete Professionals) Paul Cook reformed the band (sadly without Steve Jones, albeit with his blessing), releasing the well-received What In The World in 2017. Subsequent line up shifts have left Paul as the last standing original member, now joined by Tom Spencer (guitar / vox), ex-3CR man Chris McCormack (guitar / backing-vox) and Toshi JC Ogawa (bass / backing vox). This line up, more prolific than previous iterations, recorded three EPs during the various lock downs of 2020 (frustrated by their inability to tour) and then entered the studio for SNAFU, a brand new, eleven-track album of spikey punk anthems that walk a comfortable line between youthful rebellion and addictive melody.
Kicking off, somewhat literally, with the amphetamine blast of Easily Lead, it’s clear that The Professionals remain rooted in traditional punk rock, with no concessions to the more brutal hardcore movements that followed. The rolling thunder of Paul Cook’s drums, instantly recognisable to anyone who grew up on The Pistols, leads the way, but it’s the taut melodies deployed by Tom (with backing vocals from the whole band) that capture the attention, recalling the joyous rush of more recent bands like The Wildhearts in the process. With a seventies’ vibe, thanks to the subtle chorus effect applied to the lead vocal, Gold And Truthful is a cracking song with huge live potential. While on record it’s the melody that stands out, it’s easy to imagine that the added grit of a live performance will shove this track, with its “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” refrain, way over the edge. And so it goes. Spike Me Baby is a brilliant pop song clothed in the language of punk – slightly strained vocal, surging, palm-muted guitars – with a chorus on which you could park a truck. Next up, the self-referential Punk Rock And A Hard Place captures the challenge of maintaining a punk rock edge against a rising tide of age, snaring you with yet another chorus destined to be sung in venues across the country. An interesting digression, Washes sits somewhere between old school punk and the sunnier So-Cal variant, with lighter touch riffs and a simplistic chorus that crowbars its way into your skull.
With a solid, grinding riff, Heartburn adopts a slightly tougher stance, while Never Say Never recalls the insistent melodies of The Buzzcocks, a slight hint of delay on the vocal once again giving it a retro feel. The palm muted riffing of So No Go paves the way for another song that feels a touch harder edged, although there’s a cleanliness to the production that recalls The Manic Street Preachers, back when they regularly conflated the Pistols with Guns ‘n’ Roses. An album highlight, the snappy The Elegant Art (Of Falling Apart) would comfortably sit on The Wildhearts’ Fishing For Luckies collection, with its minor key verse and explosive chorus. Next up, Only Human feels a little slower than its delivery demands, but it’ll make for a cracking live cut. It leaves the sarcastically-titled Consuminator to bring the album to an end, throwing a few barbs at modern society just as the band are out the door.
When the band sing “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”, there’s more than a subtle wink aimed at the audience. While, on the one hand, it can surely be taken as a swipe at a younger generation that, all too often, seem to lack the fire and fury that was once a hallmark of youth; it could just as easily apply to the old punks who have now found themselves in a job, in a house and nurturing a family. To an extent, this is the quandary that The Professionals themselves face, but it’s one they tackle head on, crafting lyrics that are all too aware that the world has changed since punk first gobbed in the face of the establishment. As such, the focus here is on the energy of the performance and the quality of the melodies, with the bond delivering on both counts. Not only do the tracks race past with vim and vigour, but also the album has more hooks than a tackle box, and if you don’t find yourself humming at least one of the tracks in the shower, you’ve been doing it wrong. Far from reinventing the wheel, SNAFU is an opportunity for a group of punk rock lifers to gather together and do what they love, the result being a hugely enjoyable set of anthems that seem predominantly aimed at getting the band back out on the road as quickly as possible. 8/10
