Album for today… Mission of Burma – Vs [1982]

// August 27th, 2010 // Music Reviews

Stewart Lee‘s excellent new book How I escaped My Certain Fate, The Lives and Deaths of a Stand-Up Comedian takes the first part of its title from a song by American post-punk band Mission of Burma. The comedian recently delivered his own version of that song (“That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate”), backed by Franz Ferdinand, to close a special gig at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre. My acquaintance with Mission of Burma had been almost non-existent up until that moment. I tracked down both 1981′s Signals, Calls and Marches and Vs from 1982 and was immediately very glad that I had. Comparisons with The Clash are probably inevitable and the band’s influence on later artists such as Nirvana, R.E.M. and the Throwing Muses is easy to see. Vs is an enthralling and cathartic 53 minutes which still sounds as vital in 2010 as it must have done in 1982.