The UK's relentless Xeroxing of its heroes has made it de rigueur to draw easy parallels, so it's tempting to say the post-punk revival has finally produced its own pixilated copy of The Fall in new Southend spitters These New Puritans. Certainly Mark E. Smith's Mancunian mumbles—as well as the smart stab-and-spit attack of other era notables like Gang Of Four and Wire—loom large over the blistering declamatory statements and angular skittering of the group's debut, Beat Pyramid; it's right there in the name, after all. But while These New Puritans similarly dig repetition and they're never gonna lose it, the upstart quartet has another quarter-century of influences up its tattered sleeve: Try as they might to distance themselves from the eager-to-please likes of Klaxons, the singles "C. 16th" and "Elvis" have a modern indie-dance kick that should similarly put emaciated asses in motion, and surprisingly sensitive ballads like "Navigate" and "Costume" could only come from a group of shrewd post-millennials who actually care about moving units. Futures and pasts, indeed.
A.V. Club Rating: B+
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