The Nightingales, The Nightingales (12" EP)

Robert Lloyd and his crew continue under the Nightingales moniker, more than 30 years after they released their best-remembered album Pigs on Purpose.  After moving to a cleaner style in the late-80s, they've even returned to the post-punk aesthetic for which they're best remembered.  The 4 song EP The Nightingales, which preceded Pigs on Purpose by only months in 1982, follows a similar stylistic pattern.  The obvious influence here is the Gang of Four's classic Entertainment! LP, with bright, jagged guitars and syncopated drums in the foreground.  While many of the songs on Pigs on Purpose, like Entertainment!, cleanly reference rock song structure, The Nightingales feels a bit less focused and coherent.  Structural elements are harder to discern, as the songs seem to hop about more through time.  Lloyd's vocals, while retaining his references to crooning, tend to be buried somewhat in the background.  The recording of The Nightingales feels even more simple and primitive than Pigs on Purpose.  Where Pigs on Purpose had found a cover design style to match the contents, this EP employs a comedic newspaper reference with little relationship to the band's music.