For music fans of a certain vintage, the name Hue And Cry will immediately send them back to the late 1980s. Pat Kane and his brother Gregory seemed to be the epitome of the sharp-suited, smooth pop-jazz-soul that was so popular back in those days. Yet there was more to them than a snazzy image – their biggest hit Looking For Linda sounded like a swooning ballad but was actually about domestic abuse, while their signature track, Labour Of Love, was an infectious, politically-charged critique of capitalism.

Although the brothers haven’t particularly troubled the charts since 1991’s Stars Crash Down album, they’ve very much remained a going concern, releasing a number of albums since they reformed after an appearance on ITV’s nostalgia-fest Hit Me Baby One More Time in 2005. Their 16th studio record, Everybody, refuses to be shackled by the past – in fact, anyone who remembers Hue And Cry from their Labour Of Love days may well be hard pressed to recognise it’s the same band.

Everybody sees them swap the jazz-inflected soul for a big, synth sound. There are nods to house, trance and Eurodisco, but it’s very much still a ‘songs’ album, with several tracks boasting choruses that will stay in your head for a long time. In other words, it’s Hue And Cry, but not as you may remember them.

What’s stayed very constant through the years is Pat Kane’s voice. He remains as distinctive a vocalist as he was in 1987, with his rich baritone as strong as ever. There’s even nods to Shirley Bassey‘s delivery on opening track Stronger, a big, dramatic curtain-raiser that sets the mood for the album perfectly. Make My Day has a definite Chicago house influence, with an infectious Frankie Knuckles style piano riff bouncing through it, and a chorus that almost soars into the sky.

The band’s traditional political musings haven’t been toned down on Everybody, but they have been reframed slightly. So, angry polemics about Thatcherism have been swapped for a more holistic view about technological and authoritarian overreach, climate change and the importance of keeping your humanity. Kinda Blue Kinda Love (which bears a passing resemblance to Jennifer Paige‘s ’90s classic Crush) questions that “the times are dangerous, but are we brave enough?” while In Our Ruins has a bleakly dystopian message to match its futuristic sound (“in our ruins, we’ll spend our days”).

The joy of the music means that none of this ever becomes bleak or depressing. Force Majeure is effortlessly uplifting, a song that you can easily imagine filling a dancefloor in a European club, while Everybody Deserves To Be Loved has a celebratory air to it, a frantic disco anthem that celebrates humanity and love.

Some older Hue And Cry fans may find this musical departure a bit too radical for their tastes – there’s certainly nothing that sounds even close to their breakthrough album Seduced And Abandoned – but there’s something undeniably admirable about a band evolving their sound so dramatically at this stage of their career. While the nostalgia circuit obviously has its appeal, there’s something much more rewarding about Everybody.