Harrisons - No Fighting in the War Room (Melodic)
3/5
By: Gareth Roberts
It was around a year ago when it seemed that every Tom Dick and Harry that picked up a guitar in the city of Sheffield was liable to be offered a record deal (really, how else did Milburn manage it?). Since then, the city's position as the UK's capital of music has been all but surrendered once again - which only makes it all the more surprising that Harrisons decide that now, no sooner no later, is the right time to unleash their debut album.
'Dear Constable' does enough to set the album off to a reasonable start without really impressing, though thankfully the punk-ish 'Man of the Hour' manages to rescue enough interest to warrant sticking around to hear the rest of the record. But again, you just can't help but wonder why, why, would anyone want to listen to this now? It wasn't all that enticing a year or two ago when this kind of thing was all the rage, and now it almost feels like they're flogging a dead horse.
That may be slightly unfair, the excellent 'Wishing Well', the nu-rave infused 'Monday's Arms' and the highlight 'Blue Note' are as good as anything you could hope for as far as this type of music is concerned, and 'Take it to the Mattress' and 'Medication Time' make clear in no uncertain terms that they know their way around a tune.
In truth, it's an album that conjures up lots of contradictory thoughts. But again, you can't escape the feeling that they may have missed their chance. It's not a bad album by any means, it's just not really good enough. The songs mentioned latterly are all pretty damn laudable, but unfortunately for Harrisons five or six songs do not a really good album make. As 'Blue Note' reaches a crescendo with Adam 'Jubby' Taylor singing "the days, the days, the beautiful days, now they're gone" on repeat, you can almost taste the irony.
Stream two tracks from 'No Fighting In The War Room' HERE.
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment