It seems to me there are two main ways we can respond to the mean-minded, vitriolic age we are living in. One is to feel anger and outrage, the other is to close your eyes and pretend things are not as bad as they seem.
Eat The Evidence seem to have hit upon a middle way which, so far as I can gather, entails getting high on pills'n'booze and treating disturbing events as one big joke.
The timing of their debut release implies that this is an alternative party political broadcast on behalf of the ska-punk party by these five likely lads from the conservative constituency of Southend-on-Sea.
The topical single Tories Go To Waitrose makes an eye-catching title in the context of the general election but the satire is pretty lame and insubstantial.
The song is billed as a "hilarious punk-rock takedown of the toffs at the top" but any irreverence is immediately undermined by the band themselves when they say: “The song accidentally implies that the Conservative Party might shop ethically. Although we do hate the Tories, the song doesn’t make much sense.”
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Such political wishy-washiness highlights the fact that the fourteen tunes on the debit album are little more than rowdy crowd pleasing drinking songs.
The PR sees fit to point out that brothers and leaders Jack and Tom Lattimer are actually "skilled musicians" whose playing is every bit as "dextrous" as fellow band members Ric Lygo, Joe Bartlett and Michael Saminaden.
Unfortunately, the record tells a different story with the limited musical range merely serving to place the band as a novelty act who are neither wise nor witty enough to swing any marginal seats.
It therefore ends up as being a dumb record for dumb times.
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