A Certain Ratio: It All Comes Down to This review – punk-funk stalwarts on a euphoric high

(Mute)
The 13th album from the Manchester pioneers blends familiarity with no shortage of new ideas, spanning introspection to jubilance

Back when they were Joy Division’s Factory Records label mates, ACR’s pioneering punk-funk barely troubled the charts, but it has subsequently influenced artists from Happy Mondays to LCD Soundsystem. Being rediscovered by successive younger generations has helped propel a career Indian summer: their recent music has channeled their early adventurousness and sounded contemporary enough to land on the 6 Music playlist.

Tunes are certainly pouring out of them. It All Comes Down to This is their 13th album and third this decade. Where last year’s 1982 made great use of Ellen Beth Abdi’s hazily soulful vocals, here they strip themselves back to the core trio of Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson and bring in Fontaines DC/Wet Leg producer Dan Carey to marshal the songwriting and delicate balance between melody and grooves.