It’s like someone’s made a King Blues Greatest Hits compilation, but with entirely new material. “Can’t Bring Me Down” and “We Are The Future” bare the electronic signature of the previous album Punk & Poetry, “Wasted Words” is in the autobiographical vein of tracks from 2008’s Save The World, Get The Girl, and the ska styling of “Tear us Apart” harks back to their debut album Under the Fog. Lead singer and songwriter Johnny “Itch” Fox even throws in a brief yell of “Our streets!” in the track “When the Revolution Comes”, an echo of “The Streets Are Ours” from Save The World, Get The Girl. This isn’t a recycling of ideas, it’s a consistency of ideas presented in a new and interesting style. It’s part of a realisation that development is important but that complete reinvention isn’t always necessary.

  However, there are a couple of things missing. Itch’s signature ukulele sound is conspicuous in its absence, but I can live without that. What really hurts is the lack of a spoken word track. Itch’s poems have been an integral part of the last two albums, from the inspiring, fan favourite, ode to punk “What If Punk Never Happened”, to the satirical yet sincere declaration of adoration that is “Five Bottles Of Shampoo”. No true King Blues Greatest Hits album would be complete without such a track.

 The album is an eclectic mix of styles and sounds but it comes out, as always, as perfectly fused rather than hideously mismatched. “Can’t Bring Me Down” is an excellent example of this; the chorus is made up of intense, harsh, hardcore vocals, the verse contains a rapid vocal delivery which could most accurately be referred to as rap and, in the background, there’s an electronic beat which may well be a cousin of dub-step. And it works. Despite this vast array of genres working together in harmony, Long Live The Struggle is still a punk album through and through. It might not be the simple four-piece punk setup, but punk isn’t about the instruments, it’s the attitude. It’s the anger and discontent, the calls for change, not which instruments a band play. 2 tone was still punk, but it was punk fused with ska and reggae, Long Live The Struggle is just the latest evolution in this history of fusion and collaboration.

  Of course, one of The King Blues’ strongest points is their lyrics. These also vary in their style; from the raw, angry declarations of “We Are The Future” and “Power to the People” to the lyrically elaborate social commentary of “Modern Life Has Let Me Down”. Some tracks are a call to arms, some lament the state of the country and other tracks are on a more personal level. Plan B is hyped up as the only musician prepared to address the problems of modern Britain, the only one brave enough to be even vaguely political, but that’s just not true. The King Blues have always been overtly political, with startlingly accurate and insightful social commentary. Long Live The Struggle is no exception to this. The album opens with “We Are What We Own” which sets the tone for the rest of the album as it addresses the treatment of young people in society. It’s as if they’ve combined the angry nihilism of the Sex Pistol’s “No Future” with Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish, as they inject Blur’s melancholy view of Britain with some punk anger. Then there’s “This Is My Home”, the horror of last year’s riots seen through the eyes of a couple, a husband trying to get to his wife and children as riots rage outside. In previous albums these lyrical narrative songs have been one sided serenades from Itch, for example “Underneath This Lamppost Light” with its memorable refrain of “I know it smells of piss, but you look beautiful tonight”, there’ve always been backing vocals but this is the first true duet as both sides of the story are told. Josie Dobson, who supplies the female vocals, has a clean cut singing voice which strangely, although not unpleasantly, contrasts Itch’s distinctive and accented vocal style.

  It’s been a messy break up, but not a messy album. With all the conflicting statements and accusations being flung across cyberspace it’s sometimes difficult to continue believing in The King Blues, but as the final song of the album anthemicly insists: “Keep the faith”.