Modern (Buzzcocks album)

Modern is the sixth studio album by English pop-punk band Buzzcocks. After the critical success of the band's previous album All Set (1996), the band became disillusioned with trying to be a rock band and set out to become more "modern," thus birthing the project. Recording the album in Chipping Barnet with the band's bassist Tony Barber producing, Modern sees a strong electronic music influence, with electronic instruments and drum machines featuring on the songs, especially those written by Steve Diggle, who wrote five of the album's songs whilst Pete Shelley wrote the other eight songs. Although the album was recorded with the idea that it sounded contemporary, the album's sound was said to emulate new wave music from the early 1980s, including from Pete Shelley's solo career, and was also categorised as sounding like the art punk band Magazine, formed in the late 1970s by former Buzzcocks member Howard Devoto.