“Modern Drab” is one of those post-punk songs I can imagine will start showing up places in the future. In movies, maybe even ads. Who knows, it’s a different world now, and I want to believe these things can be achieved by a spike-y group of backward nihilists like Personnel. You’d never guess from the roughness of “Consumer Electronics” that the band would be capable of such a level-headed stab at jangle-punk. And yet there “Drab” is, glittering in the sun. So few will be ready to navigate all the levels Personnel betray within the marvelous complexity of this track, yet that’s part of the appeal for folks like me. “Hysteria” is another pivot, an attack on the senses that conjures, against all odds, Pink Flag (so few manage it) in all its glory, bare and bridling under the weight of modern culture. Devotees of Superior Viaduct and Smartguy, savvy as you already are, should show the proper deference for Personnel and what they achieve in the here and now. Snatch this self-titled 7-inch up before it drops off into the void its 200-copy run guarantees.
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