Artist:     Peter Perrett

Album:     Humanworld

Label:     Domino Records

Release Date:     6.7.19

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Ever the sneering cynic, Peter Perrett’s bedside manner isn’t very reassuring in “Believe in Nothing,” as he matter-of-factly states, “It’s not a time of hope, living is a joke.” Then comes the devastating punch line, “I’m going to sleep on a bed of nails, never to wake up.” Death seems preferable to Perrett at this barbaric juncture in world history, and who can blame him?

Having formerly fronted the late-1970s/early-‘80s U.K. power-pop punks The Only Ones, remembered fondly for their catchy single “Another Girl, Another Planet,” Perrett is hardly a cockeyed optimist. And yet, the darkly stylish and occasionally vicious post-punk family therapy session Humanworld, Perrett’s satisfying second album for Domino Records, isn’t totally devoid of faith in humanity, as the surging, lovestruck “Heavenly Day” and the uplifting, self-help manifesto “The Power is in You” opt for life-affirming resilience over resignation. Sons Jamie and Peter Jr., delivering slash-and-burn guitar and rumbling, melodic bass, respectively, feature prominently in Perrett’s hard-hitting band, which also includes drummer Jake Woodward, and multi-instrumentalists Jenny Maxwell and Lauren Moon. They ratchet up the nihilistic tension of a creeping “Believe in Nothing,” where great swaths of anxious viola whinny almost to the point of shrieking, after the tough, psychedelic garage-rock workout “Love Comes on Silent Feet” and the nervy, avant-garde drive and expansiveness of the unsettling and surreal opener “I Want Your Dreams.”

His well-documented excesses behind him, having sated his wanton appetites, Perrett—a dead ringer vocally for The Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler—is looking to make amends with family, as Jamie’s urgent and chaotic rocker “Master of Destruction” is a hurricane of dysfunction. Examining both love and politics with unsparing honesty and expressive poetry, the words “stars and stripes and swastikas in Madison Square Garden” piercing the howling, anti-fascist punk fury of “War Plan Red,” his voice dripping with John Lydon-like sarcasm, Perrett exhibits an unrelenting, intellectual vigor and sharp wit on Humanworld. As he strolls through “Walking in Berlin” with cool detachment, Perrett seems to channel Coney Island Baby Lou Reed, and the soaring closer “Carousel” is affecting and surprisingly intimate. The walls are down. Perrett is letting everyone in.

—Peter Lindblad