Glen Matlock – Head on a Stick Review

Musicians defined by their popular period look to, eventually, break from it. Moments that are long behind them, hoping their next creative flow will redefine them. A push for contemporary presence. It is a noble and often futile run to have, especially now that it is harder for an artist to pivot their image now than it was in the days of David Bowie switching his personality, style and focus from album to album. Glen Matlock still fights off an old image. The Sex Pistols and the impact of the punk revolution linger on. But Matlock is pushing through with hope for change. Collaborations with Iggy Pop and Blondie have cemented his roots, and his latest single, Head on a Stick, pushes Matlock to that next step of hopeful contemporaneous quality.

Matlock’s style and the basic principles of The Sex Pistols still overlap. It is the need to comment on the misgivings of culture that have remained with Matlock. How he presents it has moved with the times. Head on a Stick marks a shift from having one thing on the mind and rebelling against it to having too much on the brain and not knowing how to confirm it. “I just got too much on my mind / Oh yeah I gotta get this out there” feels like a simple double-up of lines, but it confirms a new style to match the familiar, rebellious charms. Matlock’s biting brand of punching up has not changed. It still calls for someone’s head to be on a stick, but lighter instrumental tones do well to disguise that.

A change of vocal range gives Matlock the chance to expand on some Americana-style features that were worked prominently on previous album, Good To Go. Little flickers of that move to a heartland style are found in mentions of quarters, the paragon of virtue and youth at the heart of wisdom. A strong track more so for the legacy it tries to move on from than anything else. Matlock provides some lyrical wonders here. It will no doubt appeal to those that enjoyed his turn as vocalist alongside The Philistines. More of the same here but with a refined core to it. Matlock appears comfortable in fighting back rather than fleeing, as he provided on Good To Go track Wanderlust, an equally defiant track.

But the shift here is that Head on a Stick marks a facing down of the problems at hand. Matlock has held firm with an authenticity that maintains the roots of his music. Head on a Stick is an important, new period of growth. Politically charged and a good follow-up to the previous raging rebellion Matlock has provided with the likes of Pop and Pistols, Head on a Stick is a solid step in the right direction for a man hoping to stake his claim in contemporary, rebellion rock. Those redefining features are saddled well with a rock-oriented style rather than that of the thrashy punk which made him famous. Matlock moves on from that, and has been doing so for some time. Head on a Stick hopes the audience that Sex Pistols appeal to will move on with him.