New Model Army - No Rest For The Wicked (1985)

No Rest for the Wicked is the second studio album by the English rock band New Model Army, released in May 1985. It was the band's first release on major record label EMI, and their last featuring bassist and founding member Stuart Morrow. The album reached #22 in the UK Albums Chart.

The first LP Vengeance strangely enough works here for this incredible band that won't hear any malarkey about how bad second LPs are supposed to be. 

A more direct approach works wonders, rendering every song a possible single, every one a flaming, emotion-wracked foray into human thoughts, customs, and politics. 

And Slade the Leveler's got some unparalleled British lyrics for this kind of statement-oriented music and tremendous songwriting on side one. 

"There is no rest for the wicked ones," he sings, like a saddened preacher, a sentiment you see again on the terrific "Drag It Down," like a guy standing at the edge of a pointless fray wondering why human beings are always so stupid. 

But he's also capable of great empathy for the times in England as they are in the 2010s, when so many young people are struggling economically, as "Young, Gifted and Skint" makes clear. 

Don't miss "Grandmother's Footsteps" and "Ambition," too; you won't hear busier bass playing on a hotfoot U.K. post-punk rock record this year. 

The evidence here is that New Model Army are getting even better when you might have expected the usual decline, suggesting that Slade is an artist with great ideas you can't exhaust, and all three members have the talent to make it something other than regurgitation.

A key element on its cover is a quotation from Magna Carta, "To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay right or justice".

Track listing

1. "Frightened"  (Justin Sullivan, Stuart Morrow) - 3:41
2. "Ambition"  (Sullivan) - 3:08
3. "Grandmother's Footsteps"  (Sullivan, Morrow) - 4:21
4. "Better Than Them"  (Sullivan, Robert Heaton) - 3:13
5. "My Country"  (Sullivan, Morrow) - 3:40
6. "No Greater Love"  (Sullivan, Morrow, Heaton) - 3:30
7. "No Rest"  (Sullivan, Morrow, Heaton) - 5:20
8. "Young, Gifted and Skint"  (Sullivan, Morrow) - 3:09
9. "Drag It Down"  (Sullivan, Morrow, Heaton) - 3:29
10. "Shot 18"  (Sullivan, Heaton) - 3:11
11. "The Attack"  (Sullivan) - 3:36

Musicians

• Justin Sullivan – vocals, guitar
• Stuart Morrow – bass, vocals
• Robert Heaton – drums

Production

• Mark Freegard – producer and engineer on "Frightened", "Ambition", "Grandmother's Footsteps", "Better Than Them", "My Country", "No Greater Love", "No Rest", "Young, Gifted and Skint", "Drag it Down", "Shot 18", "The Attack", "Heroin" (12" Version), "Adrenalin", "No Sense" and "Trust"
• John Cornfield – producer on "Smalltown England" (live) and "Liberal Education" (live)
• New Model Army – producer on "Smalltown England" (live) and "Liberal Education" (live)
• Dr Volkmar Kramarz – producer on "Betcha" (live)

Notes

Released:  May 1985 

Genre:  New Wave, post-punk

Length:  40:19 

Producer(s):  Mark Freegard ·  John Cornfield ·  New Model Army ·  Dr Volkmar Kramarz

Label - EMI