The first single to be released from his sophomore effort ‘Glow In The Dark’, ‘Hard Science’ harks back to Bowie lyrically but is even more oddball, off kilter and off beat musically. Hovering somewhere between punk and pop for the first act, more and more electronic influences keep cropping up as the song grinds onwards and upwards in terms of tempo, with both guitar and vocals taking on more of an edge than before.
The B-side ‘Cast Off Yr Mask’ follows and stays truer to the punk pop ethos than ‘Hard Science’ did. Organ sounds, guitar solos and strange song structures all an element of jazz to the proceedings. Altogether it’s not what you’d expect when you hear the telltale vocal of Matt Finucane – he’s a punk poet prepared to push the boat out.
