Pop Will Eat Itself - Delete Everything (2025) Hi-Res

“Information is power. Disinformation is king. We don’t like the truth? Delete it. Need better copy? Fake it. Flip the data, fabricate the stats. Proof is unprovable. PWEI has a history. Does it get in our way? Yes and no. Unsure? Just fuck the lot of it off to be sure. Delete everything.”

The Poppies strike back on what is, unbelievably, only their eighth proper studio album in what has been a career spanning almost four decades, the follow-up to 2015’s Anti-Nasty League, and their first with their brand new line-up, Graham Crabb and Mary Byker as dual vocalists, Davey Bennett on bass, Cliff Hewitt drumming, with original member Adam Mole on guitar and keyboards.

And over the whole of their existence, they’ve always tried to sound as cutting edge as possible, whether it was late 80’s Grebo, early 90’s rave culture or mid 90’s industrial, there’s never any one else, certainly none of their contemporaries, still aiming for this level of originality on each release, never settling fully into an easily describable genre, Pop Will Eat Itself always sound like what Damon Albarn would love Gorillaz to sound like.

But as time marches on and catches up with us all, will they still feel as relevant in 2025?

Opening track ‘The Slammer’ is ubiquitously PWEI, opening proceedings as all their great albums do, by making a lot out of their four initials, before the already released ‘Bruiser‘ and ‘Disco Misfits’, get things started properly, hints of The Prodigy behind the vocal volleys of the frontmen, they’ve lost none on their energy over the intervening years, and these are songs that are gonna sound immense live on their upcoming tour, you can almost picture the middle age mosh-pit bounce now.

And speaking of The Prodigy, there’s a reworking of the 1994’s Music For The Jilted Generation collaboration track ‘Their Law‘, with both acts still love enough to continue to play live, this version hits even harder than the original, with extra lyrics on a song that is sadly still relevant now as it was back in the rave-halting days.

There’s small easter egg reminders of their past in places, for example on ‘Vive Le Rok”s “pretty pretty, hey, pretty pretty” whilst the old-skool rap of ‘Built For Fun’, with its hometown shout outs and the zany nonsense of ‘Play A Fast’Un‘ could have been from their early 90’s classic album Cure For Sanity, but this is no nostalgia venture.

They chill out sonically with the Eastern vibes of ‘Never Mind The Botox‘, but lyrically it’s still as sharp as on anything else on here, but overall, it’s general mood is that of an angry record, but rightly so, there’s a lot to be angry about, the mid-point interlude ‘Mofo Face‘’s chirpy chorus a case in point.

It’s their most lean and cohesive record (and as similar in furious tone with) since 1994’s Dos Dedos Mis Amigos, which was the last album with their original duo upfront of Crabb and the now posh composer Clint Mansell, and is a real calling card for this current line-up.

But it’s not all future doom and gloom, closer ‘Where There’s Hope’ ends things on a sparse, yet positive note trying to negate what’s gone before, with hints of The Streets before ending on a brass barrage.

So, yes, Pop Will Eat Itself are still relevant, in fact more so than ever, in this era of bands not getting mad but looking after their careers instead. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait ten years for the next one.