It’s all been rather quiet on the Transplants front since 2005’s Haunted Cities – after an extended break, they’ve been dangling this comeback album in front of fans’ noses since 2010. Now it’s here, two things are clear.
First, they’ve been watching a lot of rolling news in the intervening years, the title track and See It To Believe It blazing in on a wave of nuclear panic. And second, they’re the same people they were when they left, In A Warzone sounding comfortingly familiar.
Rancid’s Tim Armstrong leads with a cider-breathed drawl that speaks of a thousand nights listening to The Clash, punctuated by Rob Aston’s bark. Blink 182’s Travis Barker provides reliably propulsive percussion, and – while the diet hip-hop of Something Different screams, unfortunately, of early noughties jock pop – they’ve returned with a fun, pacey slab of entirely unthreatening rebellion.
