Nightingales - Four Against Fate (2020)

U.K. group the Nightingales had an especially angular approach to punk even as it was taking shape. Developing in the late 1970s and through the '80s alongside both the loud, fast, snotty punkers and anarcho post-punks, the Nightingales took as many cues from peers like the Clash and Alternative TV as they did Captain Beefheart or Faust. Though their initial run was short lived and produced just a few documents of their ever-mutating sound, the band re-formed in 2004 for a much more productive second act. They performed and recorded often, releasing multiple albums like 2020's Four Against Fate, while revisiting earlier music with the 2021 reissue of their 1982 debut, Pigs on Purpose.
The Nightingales were formed out of the ashes of early U.K. punk band the Prefects, who had been best known as the support act on the Clash's White Riot Tour in 1977. When the Prefects split up in 1979, four of the band's members regrouped as the Nightingales, centering around vocalist and bandleader Robert Lloyd. He would go on to be the only consistent member of the group as lineups shifted over the years, but the initial version consisted of Lloyd on vocals, drummer Paul Apperley, guitarist Joe Crow, and bassist Eamonn Duffy. They were ably championed by BBC Radio 1 disc jockey John Peel and released their debut single, "Idiot Strength," in 1981 on the band's own Vindaloo label in association with Rough Trade Records. The group shifted lineups before recording their debut full-length, Pigs on Purpose, and they signed to Cherry Red Records for its 1982 release. Second album Hysterics followed in 1983, and third LP In the Good Old Country Way came after it in 1986, each with different personnel. By 1986, Lloyd dissolved the Nightingales to focus on work as a songwriter, producer, label manager, and solo artist.
The Nightingales re-formed in 2004 and released four 7" singles as well as playing several select concert dates. In 2006, they released Out of True, their fourth full-length effort and first in 20 years. From that point forward, the band were more active than before, releasing new material steadily with albums like 2008's Insult to Injury and 2012's No Love Lost. They performed often and lineups still shifted around Lloyd, but the Nightingales released new music throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s, kicking off the new decade with 2020's Four Against Fate and a 2021 reissue of their debut album Pigs on Purpose, extended to include early singles and unreleased demos.