Coventry’s indie-punk icons The Enemy are set to release their first album in eleven years this Friday. Produced by their longtime cohort Matt Terry (‘40 Days and 40 Nights’ and ‘No Time For Tears’), it’s the first studio album since 2015’s ‘It’s Automatic’.

In their time away, frontman Tom Clarke has written two solo albums. 2021’s The Chronicles of Nigel unveiled its hit single ‘Be Somebody,’ which featured Nigel from XTC’s ‘Making Plans for Nigel,’ and, subsequently, Clarke wrote about his imagined life ten years later. In 2024’s ‘The Other Side’, Clarke returned to this style of writing on ‘Roy’s Life’ and ‘Flowers’, and now, upon his band's return, he finds himself drawing from the character-driven well again. ‘Serious’ examines the plight of those who “exist in the shadows, afraid of the day”, a damming indictment of the keyboard warrior. Opener ‘The Boxer’, finds a protagonist beset with fear whose failures lead to the destructive patterns. Similarly, ‘Not Going Your Way’ seeks to untangle a toxic relationship with the male blinkered and the female becoming empowered from its release.

This style of writing is important for a band like The Enemy. Once you’ve written ‘We’ll Live and Die in these Towns’, made (some) money, and twenty years have elapsed, it would be disingenuous to write those songs again. Clarke’s ability to delineate the people he grew up with or socially observe new ones has given the band and, therefore, the fan, a chance to relax into thier new found authenticity.

Having navigated this, you can feel the band's shoulders loosening as they, for the most part, offer fresh takes on not only their first two albums, but the wider 00s scene they came up in. ‘Trouble’ sees Andy Hopkins deliver a bone-shattering bassline and Clarke groove their way into ’40 Days and 40 Nights’ and ‘Technodanceaphobic’. The slower approach allows them to slot in between The Strokes’ aloof rock ‘n’ roll and Franz Ferdinand’s jagged hooks with such ease that it feels like their natural habitat. On ‘Innocent’, they reach for Depeche Mode via Maximo Park in the early parts, as they seek redemption in a poignant moment of soul-searching. Sonically, they build to a mid-tempo rousing climax, using guitars where they once used brass, another example of how acutely aware they are of still being the real deal (which they are).

Countering this are ‘Pretty Face’ and ‘Serious’, blistering punk interludes in the album's latter stages, proving the dog can still bite. The former plugs into the adrenaline-fueled moments of ‘It’s Not Ok’ and ‘Pressure’. There’s a broader, more rock n roll cohesion to Pretty Face than their early years, where they fold in Hard-Fi’s abrasive indie-rock meets ska, whilst Clarke’s solo taps into the understated magic of early Arctic Monkeys and the flamboyance of Steve Craddock. ‘Serious’ thunders out of the traps with ‘Had Enough’s venom before Clarke’s scintillating guitars build a wall of sound that is besotted with The Storkes and flirting with The Paddingtons, together delivering breathtaking results.

Some bands need to go away to come back. Some bands need to go away and reconnect with their early years. The Enemy have done both those things with their live return in 2022. Their cathartic nature washed away the pain of the so-called alternative media landscape, turning their back on them. ‘Social Disguises’ is a post-catharsis album. It embraces their past, both internally and the bands that inspired them and the peers they liked. Former single ‘Not Going Your Way’, a fine example of this, suits the Pigeon Detectives, as Clarke imparts thoughtful, mournful lyrics to the joyful 00s indie-punk backdrop. The middle classes will no doubt write it off as lad-rock again. Well, they were wrong then, and they can fuck-off now.

Viva La Enemy!

The Enemy - Social Disguises

Frances Murray - Adults