The physical world

"'The Physical World' is magnificent. Hulking opener 'Cheap Talk' is vintage DFA 1979. They clearly haven't forgotten the pounding thrash that made them great, but it's not all cheap thrills and weighty beats. What makes it such a rewarding repeat listen are the layers of meaning that emerge like Renaissance paintings appearing in television static. Taken together, the songs on this record are hymns to lost innocence - both for us as individuals navigating adolescence and sexual politics ('Virgins', 'Nothin' Left') and for society as it slides irreversibly into the digital age, losing touch with the physical world of the titleʺ.

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"With The Physical World, Grainger and Keeler haven't entirely scratched the itch they instigated a decade ago. But they've learned to live with the burn, and that's the next best thing".

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