S’been bloody ages since new Career Suicide material landed in our laps: over ten years have passed between this and the last LP, with almost as long since the ‘Cherry Beach’ 7″ popped out. Thankfully Career Suicide haven’t mellowed in the interim, with ‘Machine Response’ serving up the kind of jaw-slackening electric shock usually reserved for black site confessions where car batteries are connected to tender genitalia. The blistering pace of the hurtling sneer n’ snarl occasionally causes you to question whether the band are in full control of their faculties, and it’s not until you’re five tracks deep that things take something remotely resembling a breather. These moments, though, are where the band’s greatest strength lies, with the big, open-space garaginess of ‘Blank Expression’ and the bitterly catchy ‘Taking You With Me’ serving to both temper the speed and fury of the more straight-up material while simultaneously shining a bright, harsh light on their sheer talent as songwriters.
