HinweiseThunder and Consolation is one of the stronger albums I've heard of the English folk-punk hybrid New Model Army, which is to say it's fantastic. The music is clear and open, a pulsating wave of sound and fury, static charged with pastoral idealism and progressive outrage. The music here alternates between simple chord strumming rock-outs and neatly packed folk ballads. New Model Army are, despite their relative lack of fame, the quintessential musical punk band, with both ample musicianship and deeply moving lyrical themes. Between the acoustic rumble and energetic white noise, the music has a soaring emotional quality rarely found in the gray zone of post punk. New Model Army can bash out a shout-along tune with the best of them, but it's the reflective moments, the lilting singing of Justin Sullivan, and the pensive nostalgic quality, that lends the band its immense beauty.