The Three Johns
The Death of Everything

Although being part of a group that upheld the noble principle of freedom of expression (outside of any preconceived musical rule), who knows why the guitarist John Langford felt the need to form a trio with John Messrs Hyatt (vocals) and John Brennan (bass) ...not to mention Hugo, the wild drum machine. While the Mekons represented (to quote Occhetto) a joyous war machine, perhaps Langford simultaneously needed a slim unit of saboteurs with the license to break balls to reaganism (the single "Death of European" from 1985 is expressive) and the prevailing thatcherism (the other single "Sold down the river"). Thus, in the gray Leeds of the eighties, another courageous act of insubordination was born ("we are not a socialist band, we are socialists who play in a band") against a present that cowardly worked on normalizing every alternative. The blow had mainly been dealt by the Gang of Four, but the gang of four was also too serious in its affinity without divergences with comrade Marx, while the three Johns threw it on fierce and desecrating irony, like Monty Python capable of mocking even the Almighty. In truth, they had made some attempts to play seriously, for example the wonderful "The World by Storm" on the exceptional album of 1986 with the same name that also gathered the best singles: a sort of Echo and Bunnymen crossing the seven seas in a stormy world where nobody is innocent.

 So why does this fool of a reviewer talk to us about "The Death of Everything" from two years later? Because it is the record where they reach the height of musical cynicism with the three grotesque jesters on the cover who seem to mock the listener with a sneer....poor fool, your world is going to hell and you're still buying records! And down with the metal/industrial flares of "The King is Dead" with abstract funk strokes loaded with tribal vibes. Music that moves the body and mind with the compelling punk blaze "Bullshitiaco", the glam parody of "Fast Fish," or the dubbed reggae of "Go Ahead Bikini", that pulls the stick out of Paul Simonon's ass and swings it onto the dance floor in a vortex of syncopated rhythms that destabilize our auditory system.

With fierce lyrics suspended between the subversive attack against the system and the existential doubt of just wasting time ("What is fascism, father?" ..."Shut up and swallow the antidepressant pills!"), The Three Johns are capable of putting up an electric circus patching polychromes and melodies with metallic thread like the old XTC devoted to the cause and not lazily sprawling on the grass of "Skylarking". It's no coincidence they end the record with the blinding metallic clangs of "Never and Always", here the production by dub master Adrian Sherwood pushes them into the litany-filled territories of Public Image Ltd. with a singer who doesn't have rotten teeth like Johnny Rotten/Lydon ...and you can tell.

Maybe the world will go to hell and it will be the end of everything, but at least we'll die with our middle finger proudly displayed and a grin on our face.

 Fuck you, bastards.