CD Reviews

APB

Something to Believe In | Young American

By RYAN FOLEY | May 1, 2006

3.5 Stars

APB, Something to Believe In
APB: Everything's fair game for reissues

Thanks largely to a massive revival in everything post-punk, the neo-new-wave resurgence, and the timely appearance of Simon Reynolds’s Rip It Up and Start Again, anything from the ’80s is fair game for vault diggers — even Scottish pop. Last year, Domino compiled retrospectives of Orange Juice and Fire Engines, and there’ve been rumors of a forthcoming Josef F comp. In the meantime, APB are the latest Scots to get the deluxe, two-disc reissue treatment. In honor of its 20th anniversary, the Aberdeen dance-rock trio’s hard to-find underground classic Something To Believe In is once again widely available. (Original copies were once listed on-line for as much as $2500.) APB’s influence on modern rockers like Franz Ferdinand, the Rapture, and LCD Soundsystem is at once apparent in the fusion of funky bass, dance grooves, and blasts of sputtering guitar. “Shoot You Down,” perhaps their best-known tune, marries hip-shaking dance rhythms with lip-curling punk. “Talk to Me,” with its siren-like riffing, is a reminder that APB were equally capable when it came to straight-up guitar rock.