I am assuming the joke about reading your children a bedtime story was a coincidental metaphor. Rather than a reference to his recent appearance on Cbeebies Bedtime Stories, reading children nationwide, a story.
Enjoyed the review btw.
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The Album Review Club - Week #195 (page 1310) - A New World Record - ELO
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
I am assuming the joke about reading your children a bedtime story was a coincidental metaphor. Rather than a reference to his recent appearance on Cbeebies Bedtime Stories, reading children nationwide, a story.
Enjoyed the review btw.
journolud
Well-Known Member
I had no idea he had done that and nearly said that he wouldn't be likely to turn up on Jackanory anytime soon...I am assuming the joke about reading your children a bedtime story was a coincidental metaphor. Rather than a reference to his recent appearance on Cbeebies Bedtime Stories, reading children nationwide, a story.
Enjoyed the review btw.
I had no idea he had done that and nearly said that he wouldn't be likely to turn up on Jackanory anytime soon...
Fyi.
threespires
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Fyi.
Haha that's brilliant. Cbeebies taking the piss, got to be a producer who's an Idles fan. Bless him, I know he's got his own and I'm sure he's a great Dad but the more he tries to be cuddly and comfy the more unsettling he becomes :-)
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
Can’t talk. I have a knitting needle through my tongue.Have you decided yet, mate? ; )
Can’t talk. I have a knitting needle through my tongue.
Brilliant
GornikDaze
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@Coatigan gave me a heads up on Idles (I’ll lose the caps) some time ago. Whenever that was I gave them a listen and noted them for future reference. Sometimes future reference just doesn’t happen.
It was pure coincidence that led me to listening to their latest album last week which I’m quite enjoying so this weeks selection was just perfect timing.
For a bit of further context I’ve also managed to find myself listening to ‘doom synth’ in the form of a band from Norwich called Kulk - a quick try of them on Spotify will give you the general idea. They make Idles sound like the Osmonds.
Anyway I digress… onto this weeks offering. I think I mentioned in my previous post that the vocals were a bit annoying and the context of drug use etc was not relatable. My second point thankfully still stands, but my opinion of the vocals has changed. I’m not going to pick out good and bad tracks. As Coatigan mentioned it’s an album I think to listen to in its bludgeoning entirety, and certainly not one to skip after the opening few seconds of each track (one of my faults with new music). Yes the vocals vary but they do so I think in context and change with the tone of the track. There are times when he reminds me of Mark E Smith (legend) which is no bad thing. The rest of the band are tight. There’s always that drum beat to latch onto just when you take a breather. The bass and guitar chime together nicely and have great distorted/dischordant feel. I disagree about the chords and general musical feel that others have mentioned - to my delicate ears, this is great music.
Solid 9/10 from me - this is an epic album. It grabs you, turns you upside down and spits you out at the end.
Remember, in spite of it all, Life is Beautiful!
It was pure coincidence that led me to listening to their latest album last week which I’m quite enjoying so this weeks selection was just perfect timing.
For a bit of further context I’ve also managed to find myself listening to ‘doom synth’ in the form of a band from Norwich called Kulk - a quick try of them on Spotify will give you the general idea. They make Idles sound like the Osmonds.
Anyway I digress… onto this weeks offering. I think I mentioned in my previous post that the vocals were a bit annoying and the context of drug use etc was not relatable. My second point thankfully still stands, but my opinion of the vocals has changed. I’m not going to pick out good and bad tracks. As Coatigan mentioned it’s an album I think to listen to in its bludgeoning entirety, and certainly not one to skip after the opening few seconds of each track (one of my faults with new music). Yes the vocals vary but they do so I think in context and change with the tone of the track. There are times when he reminds me of Mark E Smith (legend) which is no bad thing. The rest of the band are tight. There’s always that drum beat to latch onto just when you take a breather. The bass and guitar chime together nicely and have great distorted/dischordant feel. I disagree about the chords and general musical feel that others have mentioned - to my delicate ears, this is great music.
Solid 9/10 from me - this is an epic album. It grabs you, turns you upside down and spits you out at the end.
Remember, in spite of it all, Life is Beautiful!
Out on blue 6
Well-Known Member
What a proper marmite pick. No wishy washy 5s and 6s here. You love it or hate it. I have all the albums so regard myself as a fan but even though this isn't my favourite (I reserve that for Joy) it's an easy 8.
Not a lot of non regulars scoring this which shows a certain amount of nostalgia to some picks which even though there is nothing wrong with that it does lend itself to high scores. Don't remember anyone coming on from outside saying Eyeless In Gaza what a load of shit 1 out of 10.
Nice reference from Gornikdaze to Mark E. I await Hex Enduction Hour with baited breath
Not a lot of non regulars scoring this which shows a certain amount of nostalgia to some picks which even though there is nothing wrong with that it does lend itself to high scores. Don't remember anyone coming on from outside saying Eyeless In Gaza what a load of shit 1 out of 10.
Nice reference from Gornikdaze to Mark E. I await Hex Enduction Hour with baited breath
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
I have listened to it a couple of times. Don't need any more. So first up it's not really my kind of music (I just cited Bowie, Bush and the Beach Boys having albums that I score a ten). However I can listen happily to Jimbo at his most deranged singing celebration of the lizard. I do like a bit of unusual vocals - those that haven't got great voices but their singing/saying/speaking/whispering/roaring suits their music. There was stuff I liked in this album especially the opener, MTT420RR and Car Crash. I liked the dissonance of some of the chord changes, the bass lines and drum breaks were nice and tight at times and introduced tension in some of the tracks. I liked their full on in your face stuff least and the tracks with light and shade best.
Are they genuine or do they sell grief and pain? I tend towards the former without discounting that there is a half shut cynical eye on the latter. I doubt I will return to this or their back catalogue but enjoyed being introduced to this band even if its just to interrupt and baffle my granddaughters incessant chat of Billie, Taylor and the like. So I will give it a sitting on the fence 5
Are they genuine or do they sell grief and pain? I tend towards the former without discounting that there is a half shut cynical eye on the latter. I doubt I will return to this or their back catalogue but enjoyed being introduced to this band even if its just to interrupt and baffle my granddaughters incessant chat of Billie, Taylor and the like. So I will give it a sitting on the fence 5
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RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
You should try listening to some Taylor Swift, she is a very good songwriter with an ear for a good melody.I have listened to it a couple of times. Don't need any more. So first up it's not really my kind of music (I just sited Bowie, Bush and the Beach Boys having albums that I score a ten). However I can listen happily to Jimbo at his most deranged singing celebration of the lizard. I do like a bit of unusual vocals - those that haven't got great voices but their singing/saying/speaking/whispering/roaring suits their music. There was stuff I liked in this album especially the opener, MTT420RR and Car Crash. I liked the dissonance of some of the chord changes, the bass lines and drum breaks were nice and tight at times and introduced tension in some of the tracks. I liked their full on in your face stuff least and the tracks with light and shade best.
Are they genuine or do they sell grief and pain? I tend towards the former without discounting that there is a half shut cynical eye on the latter. I doubt I will return to this or their back catalogue but enjoyed being introduced to this band even if its just to interrupt and baffle my granddaughters incessant chat of Billie, Taylor and the like. So I will give it a sitting on the fence 5
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
Bloody hell mate, try? I have it force fed down my good ear on a very regular basis. She is ok but bland and a little derivative imo and there are far better female singer songwriters. I'm trying without much success to get them to listen to a wider group than the three or four they are besotted by. Try and interest a 17 year old in Carol King or Joni though never mind Nina Simone.You should try listening to some Taylor Swift, she is a very good songwriter with an ear for a good melody.
threespires
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Modernity is sometimes a bit crap, for example on another thread I’ve just moaned about the destruction of journalistic standards caused by the changes in the news cycle. However sometimes modernity is good too.
I’ve really enjoyed this week’s pick especially coming on the back of the previous one. The Stranglers album was very enjoyable but, to me, very much of its time. The world has moved on in so many ways both for better and for worse. Drugs use is more pervasive and more complex, family life is messier, men can talk about their feelings, and music technology has opened up a world of opportunity to name but a few, not quite random, examples. In comparison to last week, this album feels alive and relevant. I don’t say that to slight last week’s pick, simply to recognise the passage of time and that much music is often reflective of the age in which it is conceived.
Good music should matter. First and foremost, it should matter to the people who make it and then ideally it should find an audience to whom it matters too. It can matter in lots of different ways:
When I first listened to it, I was of the view it wasn’t of the quality of Joy as an Act of Resistance. This was essentially a view based on the fact that a number of the tracks didn’t have the immediacy of many on Joy. Having listened to it more, I think it’s as good as anything they’ve done and like Tangk shows a band still very much in motion. It’s a bit more sophisticated than what came before in that it’s darker and denser both aurally and in subject matter.
Jason Williamson famously called into question their authenticity and cynicism a few years back. At the most superficial level you can understand why he did, but even if you think he had a point (I don't) then by the time of this album it was moot. The tracks on here are born of personal experience and it kind of straddles a line of part biography, part concept album. It doesn’t really matter what background Joe Talbot comes from as this is drawing extensively from his lived experience so how can that not be authentic?
Mostly, I don’t have the same life experiences as him, but it feels (a) authentic and (b) at a meta level (rolls eyes), relatable too. In terms of the content, years ago the Independent called them the ‘iron snowflakes’ and whilst that’s a bit journalistic twatty it sort of does sum them up. When you are a shouty bloke who is shouting about being in touch with his femininity you potentially hold yourself up to ridicule, but I think Talbot doesn’t care and that’s what makes it work. Within the thematic mix, there’s the right amount of reflection about one’s own weaknesses and the shit you’ve done, without it turning into self-loathing. He sounds like a bloke who’s been in therapy because he is a bloke who’s been in therapy so again that strikes me as pretty authentic.
It can be argued that this kind of socially conscious shouty stuff from people their age is naïve and possible even juvenile. Having been through my mid-life comfy phase, I happily find myself disagreeing with that world view the older I get; I like that this bunch of close to middle aged dickheads refuse to become 'grown up' and full-throatily commit to what they want to say.
But at the end of the day none of this stuff matters unless you’ve got decent tunes and for me, they have. Rhythmically they are on it, dynamically they’re great fun and more sophisticated than initially meets the ear and on some of the songs I think there’s some really nice texture. I like the guitar work though it’s really the beats that are driving much of this. I can easily see why his singing isn't for everyone, but I personally think his vocal delivery is more interesting than first meets the eye. For all its vibrancy and at times in your faceness, it’s considered and clearly not just been thrown together. Are the component parts massively original? Not really but like the album itself they are brought together into a cohesive whole and identity. Most of all they play like it matters and they commit to their sound.
Sonically it gets my increasingly arthritic bones going big time. One of the few bands these days that make me want to launch myself into a crowd, which, in principle at least, is never a bad thing. This latter point means it gets an extra half point and takes it to 8.5/10
I’ve really enjoyed this week’s pick especially coming on the back of the previous one. The Stranglers album was very enjoyable but, to me, very much of its time. The world has moved on in so many ways both for better and for worse. Drugs use is more pervasive and more complex, family life is messier, men can talk about their feelings, and music technology has opened up a world of opportunity to name but a few, not quite random, examples. In comparison to last week, this album feels alive and relevant. I don’t say that to slight last week’s pick, simply to recognise the passage of time and that much music is often reflective of the age in which it is conceived.
Good music should matter. First and foremost, it should matter to the people who make it and then ideally it should find an audience to whom it matters too. It can matter in lots of different ways:
- It can matter simply because it’s of an excellent quality and that excellence provides a kind of intrinsic value
- It can matter because it says something meaningful about the human condition both to writer and listener
- Or it can matter because it holds a mirror up to or says something about the times in which is written.
When I first listened to it, I was of the view it wasn’t of the quality of Joy as an Act of Resistance. This was essentially a view based on the fact that a number of the tracks didn’t have the immediacy of many on Joy. Having listened to it more, I think it’s as good as anything they’ve done and like Tangk shows a band still very much in motion. It’s a bit more sophisticated than what came before in that it’s darker and denser both aurally and in subject matter.
Jason Williamson famously called into question their authenticity and cynicism a few years back. At the most superficial level you can understand why he did, but even if you think he had a point (I don't) then by the time of this album it was moot. The tracks on here are born of personal experience and it kind of straddles a line of part biography, part concept album. It doesn’t really matter what background Joe Talbot comes from as this is drawing extensively from his lived experience so how can that not be authentic?
Mostly, I don’t have the same life experiences as him, but it feels (a) authentic and (b) at a meta level (rolls eyes), relatable too. In terms of the content, years ago the Independent called them the ‘iron snowflakes’ and whilst that’s a bit journalistic twatty it sort of does sum them up. When you are a shouty bloke who is shouting about being in touch with his femininity you potentially hold yourself up to ridicule, but I think Talbot doesn’t care and that’s what makes it work. Within the thematic mix, there’s the right amount of reflection about one’s own weaknesses and the shit you’ve done, without it turning into self-loathing. He sounds like a bloke who’s been in therapy because he is a bloke who’s been in therapy so again that strikes me as pretty authentic.
It can be argued that this kind of socially conscious shouty stuff from people their age is naïve and possible even juvenile. Having been through my mid-life comfy phase, I happily find myself disagreeing with that world view the older I get; I like that this bunch of close to middle aged dickheads refuse to become 'grown up' and full-throatily commit to what they want to say.
But at the end of the day none of this stuff matters unless you’ve got decent tunes and for me, they have. Rhythmically they are on it, dynamically they’re great fun and more sophisticated than initially meets the ear and on some of the songs I think there’s some really nice texture. I like the guitar work though it’s really the beats that are driving much of this. I can easily see why his singing isn't for everyone, but I personally think his vocal delivery is more interesting than first meets the eye. For all its vibrancy and at times in your faceness, it’s considered and clearly not just been thrown together. Are the component parts massively original? Not really but like the album itself they are brought together into a cohesive whole and identity. Most of all they play like it matters and they commit to their sound.
Sonically it gets my increasingly arthritic bones going big time. One of the few bands these days that make me want to launch myself into a crowd, which, in principle at least, is never a bad thing. This latter point means it gets an extra half point and takes it to 8.5/10
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threespires
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Bloody hell mate, try? I have it force fed down my good ear on a very regular basis. She is ok but bland and a little derivative imo and there are far better female singer songwriters. I'm trying without much success to get them to listen to a wider group than the three or four they are besotted by. Try and interest a 17 year old in Carol King or Joni though never mind Nina Simone.
At one level I think she's "lazy". Whether she's simply just immersed in the business side of things or is more interested in being a broader cultural phenomenon who knows, but I think she's probably more capable artistically than a lot of the rinse and repeat stuff she seems to put out. What I do know from my niece and her friends is that the music itself doesn't seem to actually play a very big part in the fandom, she's long since transcended being a musician into something else.
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
oh I'm not sure about that. My granddaughter and friends know every song off every album and the lyrics and which boyfriend she was breaking up with that prompted the song. They sing along to all of them. Cry to some. Then tell me they like Billy more anyway. And don't get me started on Olivia. I dare say it's not much different from the adulation for The Beatles/T Rex/Bay City Rollers/Boy Bands albeit the commercial success is far greater. I'm not moaning for sure, they brighten my life immeasurably :-)At one level I think she's "lazy". Whether she's simply just immersed in the business side of things or is more interested in being a broader cultural phenomenon who knows, but I think she's probably more capable artistically than a lot of the rinse and repeat stuff she seems to put out. What I do know from my niece and her friends is that the music itself doesn't seem to actually play a very big part in the fandom, she's long since transcended being a musician into something else.
I do think I'm being brainwashed though and one day will wake up a Swifty.
GornikDaze
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As long as it’s a Frank Swifty!!I do think I'm being brainwashed though and one day will wake up a Swifty.
A bit like the Spice girls back in the day with my daughter and friends.oh I'm not sure about that. My granddaughter and friends know every song off every album and the lyrics and which boyfriend she was breaking up with that prompted the song. They sing along to all of them. Cry to some. Then tell me they like Billy more anyway. And don't get me started on Olivia. I dare say it's not much different from the adulation for The Beatles/T Rex/Bay City Rollers/Boy Bands albeit the commercial success is far greater. I'm not moaning for sure, they brighten my life immeasurably :-)
I do think I'm being brainwashed though and one day will wake up a Swifty.
For what it is worth the Spice girls didn't bother me.
I would never buy any of their stuff but took my daughter to the movie which she loved and I must admit it did not bother me having to stay until the end.
The only Taylor Swift stuff I have heard is the Ryan Adams cover versions cd.
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
As usual it’s a very well written review. Interesting score too. Is it really one of say the best 5% of albums you have ever listened to? Is that how highly you rate it?Modernity is sometimes a bit crap, for example on another thread I’ve just moaned about the destruction of journalistic standards caused by the changes in the news cycle. However sometimes modernity is good too.
I’ve really enjoyed this week’s pick especially coming on the back of the previous one. The Stranglers album was very enjoyable but, to me, very much of its time. The world has moved on in so many ways both for better and for worse. Drugs use is more pervasive and more complex, family life is messier, men can talk about their feelings, and music technology has opened up a world of opportunity to name but a few, not quite random, examples. In comparison to last week, this album feels alive and relevant. I don’t say that to slight last week’s pick, simply to recognise the passage of time and that much music is often reflective of the age in which it is conceived.
Good music should matter. First and foremost, it should matter to the people who make it and then ideally it should find an audience to whom it matters too. It can matter in lots of different ways:
I think Idles manage to do a bit of all of those with this album. Not in an epoch shattering way but nonetheless pretty decently.
- It can matter simply because it’s of an excellent quality and that excellence provides a kind of intrinsic value
- It can matter because it says something meaningful about the human condition both to writer and listener
- Or it can matter because it holds a mirror up to or says something about the times in which is written.
When I first listened to it, I was of the view it wasn’t of the quality of Joy as an Act of Resistance. This was essentially a view based on the fact that a number of the tracks didn’t have the immediacy of many on Joy. Having listened to it more, I think it’s as good as anything they’ve done and like Tangk shows a band still very much in motion. It’s a bit more sophisticated than what came before in that it’s darker and denser both aurally and in subject matter.
Jason Williamson famously called into question their authenticity and cynicism a few years back. At the most superficial level you can understand why he did, but even if you think he had a point (I don't) then by the time of this album it was moot. The tracks on here are born of personal experience and it kind of straddles a line of part biography, part concept album. It doesn’t really matter what background Joe Talbot comes from as this is drawing extensively from his lived experience so how can that not be authentic?
Mostly, I don’t have the same life experiences as him, but it feels (a) authentic and (b) at a meta level (rolls eyes), relatable too. In terms of the content, years ago the Independent called them the ‘iron snowflakes’ and whilst that’s a bit journalistic twatty it sort of does sum them up. When you are a shouty bloke who is shouting about being in touch with his femininity you potentially hold yourself up to ridicule, but I think Talbot doesn’t care and that’s what makes it work. Within the thematic mix, there’s the right amount of reflection about one’s own weaknesses and the shit you’ve done, without it turning into self-loathing. He sounds like a bloke who’s been in therapy because he is a bloke who’s been in therapy so again that strikes me as pretty authentic.
It can be argued that this kind of socially conscious shouty stuff from people their age is naïve and possible even juvenile. Having been through my mid-life comfy phase, I happily find myself disagreeing with that world view the older I get; I like that this bunch of close to middle aged dickheads refuse to become 'grown up' and full-throatily commit to what they want to say.
But at the end of the day none of this stuff matters unless you’ve got decent tunes and for me, they have. Rhythmically they are on it, dynamically they’re great fun and more sophisticated than initially meets the ear and on some of the songs I think there’s some really nice texture. I like the guitar work though it’s really the beats that are driving much of this. I can easily see why his singing isn't for everyone, but I personally think his vocal delivery is more interesting than first meets the eye. For all its vibrancy and at times in your faceness, it’s considered and clearly not just been thrown together. Are the component parts massively original? Not really but like the album itself they are brought together into a cohesive whole and identity. Most of all they play like it matters and they commit to their sound.
Sonically it gets my increasingly arthritic bones going big time. One of the few bands these days that make me want to launch myself into a crowd, which, in principle at least, is never a bad thing. This latter point means it gets an extra half point and takes it to 8.5/10
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Must admit, I'm not that keen on the latest stuff where there's more background meddling than instruments, but her first few albums where it was just her and the band are very listenable.At one level I think she's "lazy". Whether she's simply just immersed in the business side of things or is more interested in being a broader cultural phenomenon who knows, but I think she's probably more capable artistically than a lot of the rinse and repeat stuff she seems to put out. What I do know from my niece and her friends is that the music itself doesn't seem to actually play a very big part in the fandom, she's long since transcended being a musician into something else.
threespires
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oh I'm not sure about that. My granddaughter and friends know every song off every album and the lyrics and which boyfriend she was breaking up with that prompted the song. They sing along to all of them. Cry to some. Then tell me they like Billy more anyway. And don't get me started on Olivia. I dare say it's not much different from the adulation for The Beatles/T Rex/Bay City Rollers/Boy Bands albeit the commercial success is far greater. I'm not moaning for sure, they brighten my life immeasurably :-)
I do think I'm being brainwashed though and one day will wake up a Swifty.
Yes, I probably didn't articulate it very well, my niece and her mates definitely also know the words etc but they do seem much more interested in the broader stuff, like the fact that the songs refer to various boyfriends or whatever she happens to be championing at the moment. They do seem very influenced by her. If my mum was around she would probably saying something like, "if Taylor Swift told you to stick your head in the oven would you do that too?" She seems to be taken very seriously by them, my niece was explaining the 'eras' concept for the tour as if it was some kind of profound thing. When I said doesn't that just equate to her albums there was much eye rolling :-)
Edit: What I would say is that my niece would argue that being a Swifty is all about being part of a community and in fairness to them they've already raised over a 100K for Alder Hey's charities in a few hours so fair play to them.
As usual it’s a very well written review. Interesting score too. Is it really one of say the best 5% of albums you have ever listened to? Is that how highly you rate it
I don't really score on the kind of distribution model that we've been talking about a few pages earlier so I'm not per se allocating it a percentile. That said I really really do like it, I think it's noisy and belligerent but introspective and intelligent at the same time. This is veering towards the heavier end of what I tend to listen to and I only make the effort for bands I really quite like.
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mrbelfry
Well-Known Member
Joy has a bunch of great songs but Crawler has more texture and doom sounds. I think in Crawler you can hear a lot of what they've been doing on previous albums become more coherent as they've become better at it. I do like the immediacy of some of the early bangers but they obviously spend a lot of time crafting a vibe. Ultra Mono is for me a slightly better album but I don't think many would agree with me - it's probably more consistent good without quite hitting the highs of Car Crash and Beachland Ballroom (two songs I don't think I'll ever tire of listening to) although Grounds and A Hymn run them close (both pairs have a lot of similarities)Modernity is sometimes a bit crap, for example on another thread I’ve just moaned about the destruction of journalistic standards caused by the changes in the news cycle. However sometimes modernity is good too.
I’ve really enjoyed this week’s pick especially coming on the back of the previous one. The Stranglers album was very enjoyable but, to me, very much of its time. The world has moved on in so many ways both for better and for worse. Drugs use is more pervasive and more complex, family life is messier, men can talk about their feelings, and music technology has opened up a world of opportunity to name but a few, not quite random, examples. In comparison to last week, this album feels alive and relevant. I don’t say that to slight last week’s pick, simply to recognise the passage of time and that much music is often reflective of the age in which it is conceived.
Good music should matter. First and foremost, it should matter to the people who make it and then ideally it should find an audience to whom it matters too. It can matter in lots of different ways:
I think Idles manage to do a bit of all of those with this album. Not in an epoch shattering way but nonetheless pretty decently.
- It can matter simply because it’s of an excellent quality and that excellence provides a kind of intrinsic value
- It can matter because it says something meaningful about the human condition both to writer and listener
- Or it can matter because it holds a mirror up to or says something about the times in which is written.
When I first listened to it, I was of the view it wasn’t of the quality of Joy as an Act of Resistance. This was essentially a view based on the fact that a number of the tracks didn’t have the immediacy of many on Joy. Having listened to it more, I think it’s as good as anything they’ve done and like Tangk shows a band still very much in motion. It’s a bit more sophisticated than what came before in that it’s darker and denser both aurally and in subject matter.
Jason Williamson famously called into question their authenticity and cynicism a few years back. At the most superficial level you can understand why he did, but even if you think he had a point (I don't) then by the time of this album it was moot. The tracks on here are born of personal experience and it kind of straddles a line of part biography, part concept album. It doesn’t really matter what background Joe Talbot comes from as this is drawing extensively from his lived experience so how can that not be authentic?
Mostly, I don’t have the same life experiences as him, but it feels (a) authentic and (b) at a meta level (rolls eyes), relatable too. In terms of the content, years ago the Independent called them the ‘iron snowflakes’ and whilst that’s a bit journalistic twatty it sort of does sum them up. When you are a shouty bloke who is shouting about being in touch with his femininity you potentially hold yourself up to ridicule, but I think Talbot doesn’t care and that’s what makes it work. Within the thematic mix, there’s the right amount of reflection about one’s own weaknesses and the shit you’ve done, without it turning into self-loathing. He sounds like a bloke who’s been in therapy because he is a bloke who’s been in therapy so again that strikes me as pretty authentic.
It can be argued that this kind of socially conscious shouty stuff from people their age is naïve and possible even juvenile. Having been through my mid-life comfy phase, I happily find myself disagreeing with that world view the older I get; I like that this bunch of close to middle aged dickheads refuse to become 'grown up' and full-throatily commit to what they want to say.
But at the end of the day none of this stuff matters unless you’ve got decent tunes and for me, they have. Rhythmically they are on it, dynamically they’re great fun and more sophisticated than initially meets the ear and on some of the songs I think there’s some really nice texture. I like the guitar work though it’s really the beats that are driving much of this. I can easily see why his singing isn't for everyone, but I personally think his vocal delivery is more interesting than first meets the eye. For all its vibrancy and at times in your faceness, it’s considered and clearly not just been thrown together. Are the component parts massively original? Not really but like the album itself they are brought together into a cohesive whole and identity. Most of all they play like it matters and they commit to their sound.
Sonically it gets my increasingly arthritic bones going big time. One of the few bands these days that make me want to launch myself into a crowd, which, in principle at least, is never a bad thing. This latter point means it gets an extra half point and takes it to 8.5/10
My opinion on their simple outlook is I do find it a bit cringy at times. I always try and look for nuance and perspective however that can sometimes lead to nothing changing. Sometimes you do have to just draw a line in the sand and say this should be different and not really worry about the nuance.