well this was a first.
a few weeks ago i received a cd. nothing too exciting about that you lucky b*stard, you may say.
well to gain entry to the digital pleasures i had to tear a strip off, underwhich there happened to be lots of legal mumbo jumbo advising that if i tore the strip and opened the cd i accepted 45 pages of legal small print and would be putting my life, and those of people i loved, at risk should i allow my kids to hear the album in the house at the same time as me.
a little intimidating to say the least.
but as i’m made of sterner stuff, i pushed on with my need to listen to the album.
then a quick glance over the actual label on the cd.
‘589 mark emsley – i really love music’
the fragger was totally personalised !
i know of the rules of watermarking, but this had my name on it. cool or not ? i have yet to decide.
so, what of the music ?
well i won’t pretend its anything new and fresh thats going to set off the hype machine buzzing a la arcade fire or the latest electro’d up nu-rave wannabes, instead it’s rock solid punked up pub rock with hooks aplenty. after all, this is a band who helped relaunch the stiff records label in 2006. a fact that validates the pub rock tag if nothing does.
to do the old and easy comparison game, take old forgotten brit-punkers 60 ft dolls, and mash them up with the jam, and bingo, you get the enemy. nothing more, nothing less. and before you think that’s a diss, think again. i happened to love the 60 ft dolls, and of course the jam are a band who soundtracked many a fine moment in my earlier adrenalin fuelled days.
hipsters and shoreditch haircuts are going to avoid any such assosications with these young whippersnappers as the band have absolutely nothing cool going on with their gameplan, but i cant deny that the snappy post brit pop album has a passion, a vibrancy, and a certain addictive charm hidden within the brain storming tunes, that have been beefed up by oasis‘s old mucker owen morris, a man who knows more than most on how to make guitars rip up a storm, while controlling the all essential melody.
no pretence at being this years clever clever arty types with a notebook and guitar, the trio just give it their all with straight to the point riffs, a chorus to get the moshers pumped up and we’re off.
sometimes, its the simple pleasures that are the most enjoyable, and to have an album that hits the ground running as opposed to have to absorb and get it makes for a very welcome refreshing change.
more detail : here