Peter Perrett The Cleansing 2LP

There is typically talk of a 'second coming' but much less, if at all, of a 'third coming' but that's what Perrett's third album The Cleansing epitomizes. Following the second coming of its two predecessors – both unexpected given his 2017 solo debut How the West Was Won was Perrett's first album in almost 30 years, whilst his pattern of vanishing from sight was broken by 2019's follow-up Humanworld – The Cleansing doesn't only match his best work but expands it: an ambitious double album comprising 20 songs, with his uniquely narcotic and alluring melodies, gorgeous South London drawl and ravishing rock dynamic now allied to a wider span of musical arrangements and lyrical concerns.

Alongside his trusted team of sons Jamie (guitar/production) and Peter Jr. (bass) plus members of his live band, Perrett is assisted by a roster of starry guests including Johnny Marr, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, Alice Go of Dream Wife and Fontaines D.C.'s Carlos O'Connell.

With The Cleansing, the saga of Peter Perrett can finally, and irrefutably, move on from his first coming with The Only Ones, one of the most distinctive and charismatic of all new wave bands.

Since returning to the recording studio in late 2017, Peter Perrett has been nothing short of brilliant, and never more so than on 2024's The Cleansing. The singer twists his sneeringly humane vocals around a set of songs that are eye-wateringly honest about his dangerous past, desperately emotional about the people he loves, and stand right in the center between bloody nostalgia and up-to-date missives from a still-beating heart. He peppers his straight to-the-point post-punk rockers and jangling trad rock ballads with bitter wit, hard-won wisdom, and a collection of bon mots, put downs, and declarations drawn from a life lived right up to the edge for more years than most could handle...There are no barriers or guardrails here, it's an unblinking gaze into the abyss, and victory over that bleakness, that can be shared by anyone brave enough to tag along.