It Bites

Reissues INSIDE OUT

The 80s prog-pop cult band returned post-millennium with a new singer and revived chomp.

Famed as the studdedleather Talk Talk – they shunned 80s chart success following lightheeled 1986 hit Calling All The Heroes to follow their prog-pop and hard rock hearts on two subsequent first-era albums – Cumbria’s It Bites were midreunion in 2006 when original singer/guitarist Francis Dunnery jumped or was pushed in favour of John Mitchell. Mitchell helmed these two further Bites albums, honouring their sparkled 80s roots while shifting from Dunnery’s sharper, edgier tone towards Marillion soft rock and Tony Banks frivolities.

2008’s The Tall Ships (7/10)

was reflective like a red plastic jacket, capturing the profound pop feel of their best 80s moments on Oh My God,

Ghosts and bonus track These Words (a big hit, missed), while adding extra millennial sophistication on the title track, where gloss and class collide. Indulgent prog tracks like the sprawling, 13-minute This Is England lack the punch and cohesion of classics like Cold, Tired And Hungry or Still Too Young To Remember.

2012’s Map Of The Past (7/10)

took a more artful slant. It’s a concept album inspired by snapshots from the past, dotted with stirring brass and strings and antique radio reports of the Titanic disaster. Here the florid operatic elegance of Prudence-like showstopper Send No Flowers ushered in a dramatic second-half prog medley, and synth-pop throwback Flag,

satirising nationalism, was early to the Brexit party. The second bite certainly gave us something to chew.