Now if
I could just remember the tune to that Bugsy Malone classic ‘So you wanna
be a boxer?’ Oh thank god for that, Track four seems
to have answered my prayers with its military piano with
rolling snare drum accompaniment (yes another thing that
rolls in Grim Northern apart from that annoying vocalist’s
r’s) with the exact melody line to that original song
only this time played on guitar I was actually pleased when
Macfarlane began singing…which was a first on this
terrible musical journey. But as I expected this was soon
shattered by the quite awful prog-rock (and I don’t
use that term lightly) of ‘Snap the imposters’ which
begins like a tribute to Yes and ends up as an insult…to
music, “I’d like to survive till 2060…nothings
impossible” Macfarlane rolls, well here’s news
for you sir, you might but your band certainly won’t.
I’m even starting to feel sorry for these guys now.
Maybe there’s hope in track seven, the previous single ‘Honey’.
And so there was light, just like that, in fact I go as far
as to say that it reminded me of some early Flaming Lips
tunes from ‘Hit to death in the future head’ with
its electric hi-hat’s/keyboard pulses double timing
in the chorus beside its far less than annoying vocals and
huge distortions to lift this tune above the mediocrity of
what had gone before. Number eight – another show tune
from Starlight Express maybe? Number nine – listen
to Spacehog, it’s a far better version. So at 60 minutes
you get your money’s worth of rather annoying and mediocre
pop/rock, I’m actually surprised that the same label
(One Little Indian) who provide such amazing artists as Bjork
and…and…surely there’s…oh well maybe
it’s not so surprising after all. Bjork get out of
there the future looks grim.
Mark Danson
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