I make no bones of the fact I love Wonk Unit and have since I first clapped eyes and ears on them in deepest, darkest Sarf London many moons ago.  A lot’s gone on in the Wonk camp in that time, with countless members accompanying Alex and Pwos through fuck knows how many gigs, five albums and all sorts of splits, comps and cover mount give-aways on Razzle (that last one might be a lie).  Throughout that journey they’ve evolved into a hell of a band and always made the music and the shows what matters.  Fiercely independent and always the better for it, it’s this spirit that makes what they do so engrossing because for all the attempting to pigeon-hole them as a punk band, these days it’s more for the ethic rather than the music as they simply do what they fuck they want and do it bloody well.

What hits you on listening to their sixth full lengther is the maturity and variety of the songs.  Sure there’s still the spunk and bluster blasts like Judas Betrayers or Me And Curtis but they’re balanced out by the likes of Christmas In A Crackhouse, Thank You or Hope, which owe more to Squeeze or Joe Jackson than anything that blasted out of the Midlands in ’82.  With quite a few songs embracing keysmith Simon’s skills it really is an album of great depth that will grow on you like that rash you get between your legs if you piss yourself often enough.  It goes without saying that Alex’s trademark tales of every corner of life form the basis of these ditties and I’ve got to give him an efficiency award for getting two songs out of one set of lyrics seeing as Christmas… and Me and Curtis are the polar opposite interpretations of said lyrics.

Oh yeah, after all that rabbiting on, I do need to say it’s the dog’s bollocks, but you probably guessed that anyway. Darrel Sutton

Terror is released on April 20^th and can be pre-ordered here