First Listen: Public Service Broadcasting, 'Every Valley'

At first, Public Service Broadcasting's music scans as a lighthearted gimmick: A stripped-down band — led by a guy billed as "J. Willgoose, Esq." — performs dramatic instrumentals over voiceovers from old newsreels, documentaries, propaganda and public-service materials. But as the U.K. group prepares to release its third album, it's striking how sturdy and versatile that sound has become.

Every Valley isn't Public Service Broadcasting's first concept album; that would be 2015's The Race For Space, which revisits in stirring fashion the historical saga referenced in its title. But the band's thematic palette has grown dramatically on Every Valley, which uses the collapse of the coal-mining industry in South Wales as a backdrop for a poignant and sweeping statement on automation, as well as the vulnerability of workers and the communities they support. The story feels universal — and far more current than some of the old-timey voiceovers might suggest.

Best of all, the band's sound has expanded to match its artistic ambitions. In "Progress," Kraftwerkian rhythms, processed vocals and archival samples — "You owe much to these machines" — are set against choruses in which Camera Obscura's Tracyanne Campbell coos, "I believe in progress!" In "Turn No More," Public Service Broadcasting enlists the guest vocals of Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield, who gives Every Valley a jolt of seething protest music. "All Out," on the other hand, bypasses the singing in favor of a few dramatic samples, which sit atop a bed of stormy post-rock drama; the song powerfully evokes the labor unrest at its heart, while also pummeling as hard as the band has ever pummeled before.

Public Service Broadcasting has been fun since the beginning — especially live, when the band performs in the shadows of evocative old filmed footage. On Every Valley, it achieves something even richer and harder to accomplish: relevance.

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