The original 1977-81 version of Gang of Four was such a fearsomely airtight, telepathic unit that its individual constituents are rarely regarded among the finest in their respective fields. Though frontman Jon King uniquely channeled both the lithe physicality of Iggy Pop and the suave dignity of Bryan Ferry, he’s rarely spoken about in the same breath as either. Andy Gill is the quintessential musician’s musician, worshipped and imitated by countless celebrity acolytes (The Edge and Tom Morello among them), but not enough of a household name to land on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists list. And the rhythm section of Hugo Burnham and Dave Allen was nothing less than the post-punk Bonham and Jones, but didn’t stick together long enough to be widely hailed as such. What each member brought to the table is ultimately best gauged through the process of attrition that has played out over the band’s spasmodic career.
But even if none of the albums King and Gill made without Allen and Burnham recaptured the funky ferocity of their earliest output together, the unmistakable interplay between the singer and guitarist at least marked them as Gang of Four records, in spite of whatever period-specific production signatures defined (and dated) those releases. However, after getting the old band back together in 2004, updating their back catalog, and even sticking it out for a respectable showing after Allen and Burnham bailed once again, it appears the only thing left for Gang of Four to do is to not be Gang of Four. Now that King is out of the picture following his 2011 resignation (to focus on his career in advertising), with What Happens Next, Gang of Four have effectively entered the reality-TV vocal-competition phase of their career, with lone holdout Gill filling the gaping hole at the mic stand with a revolving cast of guest vocalists.
Which is, of course, a perfectly Gang of Four thing to do. After all, inciting the ire of Go4 purists—through sudden changes in direction and personnel—is perhaps the only constant factor in the band’s disjointed trajectory. As the band’s founding member and perennial musical director, it’s well within Gill’s rights to keep the Gang of Four name alive even without the guy who’s sung pretty much all of their songs. But while the guitarist’s signature scabrous funk lashes and ear-piercing feedback frequencies remain ever-present, here they’re in service to a boilerplate post-industrial aesthetic—mid-tempo metronomic beats, distorted-megaphone backing vocals, fuzz-filtered basslines, ominous electronic oscillations—that makes What Happens Next sound more like a mid-'90s alt-rock product than the album Gang of Four actually released in the mid-'90s. Factor in the singer ringers, and What Happens Next doesn’t so much resemble a new look for a veteran post-punk band as the soundtrack to some dystopian thriller from 20 years ago. (In light of this, you could be forgiven for thinking the closing Gill original "Dead Souls" is less a callback to the Joy Division classic of the same name than to Nine Inch Nails’ remake for The Crow.)
That said, it helps Gang of Four’s cause that the technophobic prophecies found in 20-year-old dystopian thrillers are increasingly coming true today. Thematically speaking, What Happens Next updates Gang of Four’s buyer’s-remorse blues (in short: when you consume, you make cons of you and me) for the Internet-addiction age, complete with de rigueur dismissive Facebook references. Playing the role of Gang of Four’s J.D. Fortune, current touring vocalist John Sterry capably approximates King’s agitated tenor on his several lead turns, if not yet grasping his predecessor’s flair for black humor and understated absurdity; instead, he maintains a self-consciously serious tone throughout, as Gill’s guitars spark up and spasm behind him like lightning flickering above the blackest of clouds. ("Irony is luxury," Sterry admonishes on the dirgey "Obey the Ghost"—clearly, this can’t be the same band that wrote "I Love a Man in Uniform".) Only on late-album corker "Stranded" do he and Gill approach the sort of intuitive, call-and-response dynamic that powered Gang of Four’s most electrifying songs.
Alas, the match-ups with more famous conspirators yield similarly temperate results, with Gang of Four adapting to their singers’ comfort zones rather than vice versa: The student-disco bangers featuring Alison Mosshart ("Broken Talk", "England’s in My Bones") could very well be souped-up outtakes from the Kills’ groove-driven Midnight Boom; "The Dying Rays"—a balladic collaboration with Das Boot star-turned-crooner Herbert Grönemeyer—feels like it’d be more at home on a Daniel Lanois-produced Peter Gabriel album. (Meanwhile, the gear-grinding mecha-funk of "Graven Image"—with a cameo from the Big Pink’s Robbie Furze—plays to neither party’s strengths.) Ultimately, what’s most disappointing about What Happens Next is not that it will in any way tarnish Gang of Four’s legacy—if their vanguard reputation could withstand Hard and Mall, it can withstand this. Rather, it’s the unshakeable feeling that, if Gill had released this as some newly branded collaborative project, no one would question why it wasn’t a Gang of Four album.
