Karl Marx once said "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." And without denigrating the work of such phenomenally successful late 80s and early 90s bands as Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe and the like, there's a certain element of that here.
But before continuing this train of thought, I realise that I've forgotten one other band in this roll call of swaggering cock-rock, one band that has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, garnered the highest selling debut album of all time and spent untold amounts of cash on drugs, alcohol and Chinese Democracy. Yes, looming over this album like a leering sex-starved, middle-aged ex-junkie is Guns N' Roses. "Can't Say No", the biggest culprit, distils the essence of "Welcome To The Jungle", pulling out Slash-shaped riffs and "squint your ears and it could be Axl" vocals, albeit without the unique range and equally unique unrestrained ego.
In short, The Glitterati blast out twelve tracks of reasonably raucous hard-riffing rock. The bolshy opener, "Right From The Start", is mildly reminiscent of second-album The Subways, and has enough energy to drag you through its four minute running time. The whole album is steeped in enough snarling, "don't give a fuck" attitude and balls-to-the-walls rawk spirit ("Fight Fight Fight", "Too Many Girls" and well, "Fucks Me Up") to have PR bods spluttering such adjectives as "fierce", "wild" and "swaggering".
On the odd occasion that it does indeed deliver, such as on the opener and "Two Many Girls", it's fun enough, provided the brain's disengaged. But twelve tracks of what feels like recycled hard-riffing rock is a bit much when it displays so little variety.
The whole album reads like a check-list for a Do It Yourself Vince Neil: violence ("Fight Fight Fight"), failed relationships ("Right From The Start", "Lola It's Over"), drugs ("Can't Say No") and of course girls ("Too Many Girls", "You Can Be So Cruel"). The lyrics to "Shanty", the album's slow-burning ballad, even pull out the tired old "live fast, die young" scenario with the opening line, "Live fast, burn slow/I don't care/I won't know/tell another lie/tell another lie".
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The group are ballsy enough, the whole thing is executed competently, and having played some pretty big festivals (Download and T in the Park), they've probably earned the right to be a little cocksure. It's just that it doesn't feel particularly inventive and one single change of pace with "Shanty" (two if you count the swinging 6/8 of "Too Many Girls") really isn't enough to keep my attention over the forty-three minutes.
That said, it's clear that The Glitterati have settled on a successful formula and indeed one that appears to be serving them well (although they could certainly have kept the slightly rough around the edges feel of 2005's "You've Got Nothing On Me"). If "Keeping Me Down" and the line "Say what you want/say what you want/I won't talk back/I can't hear it" are anything to go by, the band is probably not thinking about changing it any time in the future.
I guess that when all is said and done, music naturally recycles itself. There are only so many combinations of chords, notes and sounds to be had in this world. And having gone through post-punk, new-wave, grunge and shoegaze revivals, I suppose it was only a matter of time before the eighties cock-rock and hair-metal genres were plundered. But it all feels like it could have been done with a couple more ideas. As it is, it rather feels like an audio manifestation of the classic VIZ advert, "A pint and a fight: a great British night". With maybe a few fat slags or two thrown in for good measure.
The Glitterati on MySpace
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