new buzzcocks songs

I don't have much to say about this but there is an article in today's Guardian about a new Buzzcocks album, the first since Pete Shelley died, and the first to be composed (I assume) entirely by Steve Diggle. Let's be real, Diggle has his moments but he wasn't the songwriting genius Shelley was at his peak. Let's also be real about the fact that the Buzzcocks' output since their reformation in um 1990? hasn't really produced anything of great value, certainly nothing as good as their original three and a half albums (well, four and a half, if you include Singles Going Steady and why wouldn't you since it's one of the greatest pop records of the 20th century). So I was intrigued by the idea of new post-Shelley Buzzcocks and I was kind of ready to be exposed to a load of shit when I searched for the new single on YouTube, 'Senses out of control'. Well. It's actually not as terrible as I thought it would be, I mean, if I was the producer I'd do a bunch of things differently but perhaps it's not quite time to write Steve Diggle off. Perhaps my low expectations have warped my sense of it. Not sure. I'm also just kind of really impressed by Steve Diggle at 66, the guy looks old, I mean he perhaps even looks older than he is really, but he doesn't give a fuck about that presumably and I have to respect it, by which I mean, whether I have to or not, I do. The image above is from another video for another song, called 'Gotta Get Better'. Which is also not appalling. So... props.