Travels With Myself and Another

Future of the Left continues to deliver the post-hardcore goods on Travels With Myself and Another. On this latest outing, the guitars are bigger and meaner, more menacing and dangerous, and the band’s ferocious punch is delivered with even more vicious humor and punky spirit.  With the right kind of marketing push, these Welsh rockers — pummeling home their points on topics like consumerism, greed, and integrity with a seething rage — could be as big as, say, Rage Against the Machine. The tracks here are powerful, memorable, hooky, and clever enough that some might actually feel their frontal cortex grow as they listen. From the whiplash genius of “I Am Civil Service” to the martial seesawing of “The Hope That House Built” and the sneering “You Need Satan More Than He Needs You,” the collection is giddy with creative expression. The howling and shimmying “Chin Music,” the early-punk eruptions of “Stand By Your Manatee” and “Land of the Formers,” and the dark hilarity of “Lapsed Catholics” show a band with a deep reserve of musical skill. A minor masterpiece.