MONOCHROME SET - Love Zombies LP

Highly recommended.

Compared to the doom and gloom of Joy Division and PiL there's much that's refreshing about The Monochrome Set's playful, jazz-inflected sound.

For 1980 this album's musical palette is a fairly diverse one, catching the first wave of neo-psych - the freakbeat riff of "Karma Suture" sounds straight out of The Damned's Black Album (though this came first!), while "BID Spells Bid" almost anticipates sophisti-pop crooning, albeit with a greater sense of irony.

The title track even embraces prog and plays out like a post-punk version of Camel. "Adeste Fideles" could be the forgetten post-punk anthem to end all post-punk anthems, with its wonderfully obtuse lyrics, catchy riff and dazzling keyboard work.

Place it among your desert island post-punk LPs, for Love Zombies has the right balance of the oddball and the atmospheric.