If they followed the path of many 1970s peers, A Certain Ratio would be on the nostalgia trail, playing Rewind events alongside China Crisis and Howard Jones. Instead, they are churning out gritty new songs with exposed post-punk roots.
It All Comes Down to This is the band’s fifth album on Mute. Coming only a year after the brilliant 1982, ACR could have been forgiven for coasting a little bit. Instead, they have generated a short but compelling set that serves as a master class in industrial funk. The clarity of the sound is miles from the Tony Wilson-produced “Shack Up,” but the lineage is easily traced between the group’s indie hits and their current material. Jez Kerr’s vocals sound smoother than ever, but there is enough dirt in tracks like “Surfer Ticket” to recall that ACR were contemporaries of both Cabaret Voltaire and The Pixies.
What sets ACR apart from their peers is their sense of rhythm. Listening to “Out from Under,” the glow of the city is menacing but your hips move in response to the threat. Try not to nod to “Where You Coming From.” Your feet will shuffle to the groove of “God Knows,” which has a summer psychedelic feel like later XTC and Wire.
The title track is the one that will get all of the attention in the mainstream press, but the most glorious refrain is in “We All Need.” It’s like Superfly filmed in Moss Side.