Album Review: Gavin Friday, Ecce Homo

“Bastard children of Ziggy Stardust and Johnny Rotten” is how Gavin Friday once described his groundbreaking band The Virgin Prunes, which is more than a decent distillation. A 40th anniversary reissue of classic Prunes’ albums, including their debut …If I Die, I Die – perhaps the best representation of their Bowie/PiL alloy – occurred in 2022.

Hot on its heels, Friday now releases his first solo album in 13 years. That’s important, because his early material and Ecce Homo perform something of a quantum entanglement. The techno cabaret of ‘Cabarotica’ recalls events in 1982, while the electro-pop of ‘Lady Esquire’ intones, “Take me, make me, a Virgin Prune”. Elsewhere, ‘When The World Was Young’ evokes Cedarwood, the suburban street where Friday, fellow Prune Guggi and Bono were once members of a surrealist street gang they branded Lypton Village.

However, the true home of the Prunes was not Dublin nor London, but Berlin and indeed deeper Europe. Indeed, the band continuously trekked the continent in the early to mid-'80s in their confrontational and subversive style. Ecce Homo magnificently continues to tread that territory, perfectly plaiting an ethereal sensitivity in a blaze of Euro-disco, the titular lead single being exhibit A – so good it has you dashing to the accompanying remixes.

With Soft Cell's Dave Ball, along with Michael Heffernan, handling production duties, the record skips through disco, gospel, kosmische Musik, Alessandroni-fused choral arrangements and more, making for a remarkable sonic trip. Mighty stuff.

9/10