The Death Set - Worldwide Album Review

The Death Set
Worldwide
Counter
Album Review

Progressive rock? Never heard of it. Slushy ballads? I don't know what you mean. Real musical instruments? Does a Fisher Price keyboard and three-stringed toy guitar count?

Probably just some of the questions and answers fired back and forth between The Death Set and anyone completely unsure of their mindset or indeed, existence.

But hell, what do they know, as every mildly exciting band from The Ramones to Nation Of Ulysses, Talulah Gosh to Bis, has toyed unapologetically with short bursts of youthful exuberance over long, drawn-out castigated bore-a-thons. And it is for that precise reason that all of the aforementioned, regardless of how many sales units they may have initially shifted, will have an eternal place in musical folklore. It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it, as they say, and Baltimore outfit The Death Set are the 21st Century's results.

Initially christened "The Motherfucking Death Set" - something they repeat on more than one occasion here, just for good measure - theirs is a sound that only the most po-faced, narrow-minded music snob couldn't find some kind of kinship with. Sure, their short sharp bursts of agitated punk-pop won't win any awards at next year's Mercury gathering for musical dexterity in a virtuoso styling but what is there not to enjoy about a collection of songs that range from four seconds (the opening 'Solve It') to a ground-breaking (by their standards) two-minutes-and-twenty-four-seconds ('Had A Bird').

Although spanning eighteen tracks in total, it would be nigh on impossible to get bored with 'Worldwide', as the combined length of the whole album barely stretches the twenty-minute mark. 'Intermission' is how Bis would sound singing at a football match, while 'Superzero' feels like Gary Numan gone punk with Black Flag as his backing band.

Elsewhere, there's little time to draw breath as this tourettes on tape manifesto exhales more energy in its little finger than countless other so-called worthier acts you might care to mention. The only downside with 'Worldwide', perhaps, is that like all short-term highs, over-indulgence might lead to a sickly aftertaste but for now, let's not worry too much about that and just enjoy! enjoy! enjoy!

3.5/5

Dom Gourlay