Solid Gold
Solid Gold keeps Gang of Four’s sharp edges but gives the rhythm section more weight. The guitar still sounds capable of cutting across a song at any moment. Underneath it, the bass and drums settle into firmer patterns than on Entertainment! The result feels less frantic, with the same uncomfortable questions.
Paralysed is a convincing opening. A hesitant drum pattern gradually fills out before bass and guitar add their parts. The groove is clear, but it never becomes comfortable. Jon King’s controlled delivery adds to that uneasy feeling. It is a useful introduction to an album that often builds pressure by holding a shape rather than constantly breaking it apart.
What We All Want and Outside the Trains Don’t Run on Time are the most direct highlights. Dave Allen’s bass gives the songs a strong centre, leaving Andy Gill room for sudden, abrasive guitar responses. The contrast between a steady rhythm and a restless surface is still the band’s best tool. You can follow the beat without knowing where the next interruption will land.
The lyrics remain concerned with work, money and the ways people learn to accept their surroundings. Cheeseburger brings an especially dry sense of humour to its view of American ambition and consumption. The delivery can be confrontational, but the songs ask you to examine the situation rather than simply handing down a set of slogans.
There is a cost to the more settled approach. Solid Gold is less immediately exciting than its predecessor, and the later stretch has fewer of the guitar eruptions that make the strongest songs so engaging. Still, this is far from a band running out of ideas. Its bass-led arrangements and disciplined tension give familiar ingredients a distinct character. The hooks take a little longer to emerge, but there is plenty here worth returning to.
