Album Review
Buzzcocks
Attitude Adjustment
CD/ Vinyl / Streaming / Download
Out today, 30 January 2026
Legendary Manchester punk pioneers Buzzcocks return with a brand-new studio album – their twelfth to date and another thrilling chapter in one of British music’s most enduring stories. (Says the Press Release). ‘It is actually a half-decent album’ says Ged Babey, renowned as one of Steve Diggle’s harshest critics.
Bursting with 14 new tracks, Attitude Adjustment finds Buzzcocks doing what they do best: combining raw punk energy with melodic smarts and lyrical bite, all delivered with trademark heart and humour.
Perversely, it’s the songs which sound least like classic-Buzzcocks that are the best to my mind.
Take Jesus At The Wheel. No, I don’t think Diggle has ‘got religion’ quite yet – but it’s a wonderful and strange song with a mantra-like repetitious quality and echoes of Dylan, Neil Young and… Bowie. Yeah, I was surprised too.
Heavy Streets too – sounds like Tin Machine rather than Buzzcocks. I know they are slated generally but Tin Machine were the kind of intelligent rock’n’roll band that Steve aspires to be in – so I’m not using the comparison as a diss at all, quite the opposite.
All Gone To War is acoustic, folky and mellow protest, a touch of harmonica and addressing current affairs as you would imagine… and really doesn’t sound like textbook Buzzcocks but is very decent stuff…
Yeah, OK, before I go on, what has happened? I am ordinarily Diggle’s biggest critic…
Before I became his journalist Nemesis, and long before Pete Shelley died it was Salford DJ the late, great Stephen Doyle who first criticized Steve Diggle and his input to Buzzcocks. He asked Shelley live and direct and publicly whether Steve ‘ever got the memo’ about Buzzcocks ‘NOT being a rock’n’roll band- It’s 58:36 in, here.
My own opinions are published in reviews of the Domino reissues and of Paul Hanleys Sixteen Again book and elsewhere. The only feedback I have ever got from Steve Diggle himself was on Facebook, in the form of a quote from history which starts: It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better… and ends comparing me to – those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”.
I was impressed at the dignified response: it wasn’t just a ‘Fuck off’ or a death-threat…
Buzzcocks, the band/brand have probably lost fans since Shelleys death, but have also no doubt gained new ones: youngsters impressed by Diggle’s resilience and showmanship who want genuine old-school punk to fire them up.
I’ve never met Steve and bear no malice as we are all getting older, our generation are gradually dying-off and he can and will do whatever he likes under Buzzcocks name whether I or people like me approve or not.
Contemporaries, The Damned and Eater have released ‘covers albums’ of late – both of which I do actually love and are brilliant – but to Steve, doing such a thing, I imagine, would be an admission of defeat. Buzzcocks have only ever recorded two cover versions in 1976 (on Times Up – a bootleg originally) in there entire career. (Someone will correct me if that’s incorrect…)
(Cue Press Release)
As Steve Diggle puts it, “A new album should always have elements of surprise and create its own world, and this does. It avoids the cliché and expands the Buzzcocks’ magical journey.”
From the swaggering opener Queen of the Scene, the album is packed with spirit, invention and attitude — proving once again that Buzzcocks are far more than just a heritage act; they’re a living, evolving force.
Attitude Adjustment stands as a celebration of resilience, creativity and pure rock ’n’ roll energy — proof that nearly five decades on, Buzzcocks still know how to hit hard, hook deep, and move fast.
Yeah, OK, OK….a trifle over the top. My verdict. Track by track
Queen of The Scene (Sample lyric) Queen of The Scene – Know what I mean? / Trying to get to heaven in a suicide machine. Lyrically, pure Zodiac Mindwarp style Heavy Metal clichéd bollocks I thought initially – but maybe it’s Steve, tongue-in-cheek, referring to himself and his love of the Rock’n’Roll Lifestyle? – but a nice pure Buzzcocks style tune.
Games – I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I got nothing to say to you / cos I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I know its all about you / Cos I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I don’t play those games that you do…
Just too Oasis to be frank. Also includes the rhyme – World is full of crap / I’m not coming back. And the words Dark side of the moon!
Seeing Daylight – Musically sounds like Breakdown to begin with… nice top-string solo, then a bit of bubbly wah-wah. Not ‘trying too hard’, long fade-out. OK track.
My Poetic Machine-Gun I quite like this – Dylan-ish nonsense perhaps – but a decent song which highlights the fact Diggle does have a sense of humour.
Tears of A Golden Girl I like this one too – doesn’t sound like Buzzcocks – but a great little pop song – Diggle sings it in a more relaxed way. Ends too soon at 2:31
Heavy Streets – Lost my phone and lost my mind – down those heavy streets. Sounds like Bowies Tin Machine as I said – But in a GOOD WAY – not at all Buzzcocks! Best track so far.
All Gone To War Acoustic. Lennon-ish but I like this as a decent honest piece of work, trying to say something
One of the Universe Pt2 seems to be one minute extracts from an extended psych jam straight off of the Roses Second Coming album. Shoulda put the whole thing on the album – with a drum solo and more cowbell.
Jesus At The Wheel – I do love this – proves Diggle can write a great song which sounds like him, a tiny bit like Buzzcocks but with a psych edge, repetition and Dylan-ish oddness about it – again, ends too soon and fades out
Just A Dream I Followed –An adapted riff from ESP – just a dream I swallowed / followed. You don’t swallow a dream, you swallow a lie. Apart from that, it’s a nice track.
Feeling Uptight Decent but unremarkable song – simple insistent guitar pattern – could’ve been a song which didn’t make it onto Love Bites.
Break That Ball & Chain Motown type beat and a very mod toe-tapper – late-period Jam.
The Greatest Of Them All Very slow ballad, Beatles / Weller style. It’s a big melodramatic, lighters-in-the-air anthem. Diehard fans might hate it – so therefore I like it!
Overall, Attitude Adjustment is way better than Sonics In The Soul.
Buzzcocks Est 1976 -innovators and an unsurpassable pop group in their prime, have against all the odds, survived over the decades, if in name only and in the human form of punk rocks own winking and pointing Keith Richards. Even though he didn’t get the original memo…
‘Steve is just Steve…’
As far as I know, Diggle has, for 50 years avoided the slog and daily grind of the Dreaded Day Job – in office or factory or cleaning windows – he has ‘lived his dream’ of being a rock’n’roll star and consumed more Moet and Charlie than it is thought to be humanly possible.
But now he is writing songs about world conflict, the sense of dread on the streets of his hometown and having Christ in the driving seat… and for that reason…
Attitude Adjustment is another victory for the man and the brand.
Buy from here
All words Ged Babey with Press Release and Lyrics in italics
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