This is just about the best debut album you will hear all year; a stonking rampage of power punk from a band who know exactly what they are doing and have the pedigree to prove it. They are something of a super group made up of Sulo Karlsson from Diamond Dogs along with Mick Geggus from the Cockney Rejects, Dave Tregunna of Sham 69/ Lords of the New Church and Terry Chimes of The Clash/ Subway Sect as well as Idde Schultz who together have made an album that reminds me a lot in places of the album Demolition 23 put out some years ago.
From the opening manifesto of Busy Making Noise, they set out their stall and I just want to turn it up and wallow in the noise these boys and a girl are making. The Street Flavour they follow it with makes them sound like the Power punk equivalent of street walking cheetahs whose only mission in life is to put a smile on as many faces as they can through the power of the music they make.
I've heard Down By The Border so many times now (as a single and on the album) that it feels like a song I've known for 10 years at least. It's a real classic sound and tune that you need to be singing along to now. They then take things down a notch or two for the rueful Yesterday's Boys And Girls: possibly about the status they have themselves as older statesmen in the music biz or maybe just a wry look at all the friends that are no longer on the scene. Looking For A Blaze is as close as they get to the Diamond Dogs sound but it's still got the power pop edge to it that much of the album retains.
Remember Me Like That is another more gentle tune that has slowly wormed its way into my brain and lulls you before Gangster Radio jumps out the speakers. As the other side of the band's first single it's also very familiar and had me singing along every time it comes on. Its lyric about being permanent outsiders is brilliant.
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Do I need to say how well-crafted all the songs on the album are and how well played they are? It should be a given as it should be Just A Matter Of Time before they are filling venues all over the place. A Little Bit Of Grace (which is more or less a duet between Sulo and Idde) is as pretty as this band are likely to get but it works well and fits in with the album nicely, showing a different side to them as they sing about a relationship that's falling apart.
Right About Now seems to be all about personal empowerment and if you need some of that to help you through the day this is the perfect song for it. Floodlight is a good downbeat, lovelorn song to grab at the heartstrings. Keeping in a similar vein is Ruin Of A Heart that just leaves time for them to blast through Runaway Son with the help of Mick Geggus' bro Jeff Turner: a great Lifestyle blueprint of a song as they sing of how they only ever wanted to be the Runaway son. a great end to a very fine debut album indeed.
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