With reviewers using words like ‘fresh’ and ‘classic’ and bandying around comparisons to the likes of The Kinks and The Clash, it’s pretty obvious people are getting excited by China Rats – yet another band to emerge from the effervescent Leeds scene.
China Rats make no secret of their love of punk rock and the classic British guitar bands (hence the comparisons) and it’s all evidenced abundantly on this five tracker. ‘N.O.M.O.N.E.Y’ blasts off as a full-throttle punk rocker, an amalgamation of The Clash and The Ramones with a trebly, reverby garage production giving it a raw edge that doesn’t detract from its clear pop sensibility. They don’t let up, either.
If Oasis hasn’t sucked and instead of endlessly plundering The Beatles’ catalogue had appropriated from the Pistols’ ‘EMI’ they might have written ‘Deadbeat’, while ‘Reeperbahn’ leans on 60s Britpop tinged with a Byrdsian jangle. But even at their poppiest moments, China Rats are anything but wishy-washy, the drawling hollered vocals on closer ‘Green Tears’ carrying a real rock ‘n’ roll swagger, and without a duff track on this release, it’s quality all the way: not so much playing with fire as on fire.
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