Simon Bestwick

I've loved Shriekback's music ever since I first heard it on the soundtrack to Manhunter. Thirty-seven years after they started they're still going strong, now with Carl Marsh once part of the line-up along with fellow founders Barry Andrews and Dave Allen. Their fourteenth album, Why Anything? Why This?, is an absolute delight to listen to, from the hard-rock opener Shovelheads, through the blues-inflected, menacing, apocalyptic And The Rain (featuring a vocal from Marsh that's deeper than the Marianas Trench), Andrews' surreal croonery of Such, Such, Are The Joys and so much more, right through to final, bleak ballad Thirty Seven. Everything you'd hope for from Shriekback is here - intelligent and wickedly inventive lyrics, offbeat humour, catchy, danceable beats and music you can rock out to. After thirty-seven years in the musical trenches, they show no signs of slowing down or burning out; if anything, they're going from strength to strength in a way that should be envy of many a younger band. Shriekback rule, and long may they continue to reign.