Well, they’re OK. I mean it's rough and ready fish and chip quality nourishment from just round the corner. Familiar, unspectacular and heart-warming for the first few mouthfuls.
But it isn’t art and it isn’t life changing. Why should it be? Every town has half a dozen IDIOT BOYs and their mates all predict big things for them. Why should this Cambridge version not do well?
They have a good song "Staggered" that nicks a guitar tune from "Common People" or a country and western song whose title I forget. Never mind. The whole album is rapidly assembled from agreeable bits that are edgily familiar but not so boring that you want to switch off. Well, not unless you spend a lot of time in local venues listening to industrial quantities of this kind of stuff.
Apparently, like a lot of other young scallywags, their CD is a raw passionate rock record influenced by Green Day, Nirvana, The Pixies, and Smashing Pumpkins. It might even be a bit emo. I'm not sure.
If you've already heard the ARCTIC MONKEYS, you'll know what raw, passionate, witty punky rock can be. This isn’t it, I'm afraid. It’s the kind of music you can drown yourself in if you just go down any town and find a couple of three-band gigs at £4 in, buy the CDs on the way out. It could be the IDIOT BOY headlining, it could be anybody. You wouldn’t really notice.
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"Death Valley Sea" is probably the standout track. Still generic. But there is a very cute guitar hook that suddenly switches on a light that catches the tune and the vocalist Anthony Jewell in a better light. I go for that one.
"The Acid Test" is a long and ponderous slab of pretension with a clumsy guitar arpeggio for the intro and a brave attempt at a big tune in an emotionally convincing voice. Churning guitar bass and drums try to kick it into drive mode, but it stays a bit clapped out LDV diesel struggling home after the gig. Musicianship is basic to middling.
Despite everything, Owen McLean at the heart of things has got something going. The wheels might be falling off this particular band, but take note. There's a kernel of something in there.
www.theidiotboy.com
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