The Rank Deluxe - Tightrope (Fat Cat)
2/5
By: Charlie Potter
It's very unusual to have a British act on Fat Cat, specially one of the jangly indie ilk, but I like that, I think it's nice to mix things up a bit. Not only are this band obviously English, but you could probably guess within 5 miles where exactly in England they're from, something that I get a little bit tired of - I would by no means begrudge a band for having an accent, it's just I'm not that impressed by a band that catches the spirit of their local city. I would rather listen to just a band, as opposed to a band from a place, any day.
I hate descriptions of music that consist of a list of ingredients but this one is so simple and so bang on I cannot resist, take any normal boring formulaic oi, oi, we are lads, London town, cockney, we were born in a car park, we get into fights lets have a laugh down the Old Kent Road bands, and then put Greg Ginn of Black Flag circa 'Nervous Breakdown' / 'Jealous Again' on guitar, and you've got it. As you probably guessed I am not a big fan of one of those aspects, but I am a massive fan of the other. This guitarist is wasted in this band so much so that he almost manages to make them work. To be fair on the rest of them, you can't quite lump The Rank Deluxe in with the bands the strut up and down Camden High Street, as they certainly feel ten times more genuine than your usual pop rag fodder.
The structure of 'Tightrope' is not bad, as there are plenty of bridges, fills and breakdowns needed to constitute a good song, and I could almost put up with the singers voice if it wasn't for his tough guy lyrics. But the truly unfortunate thing about the band is their overall tone. The Rank Deluxe as a whole are quite loose, but you get the impression that they could just as easily clean themselves up, whereas yer fella on guitar truly is fantastic and very much has own style and sound, albeit one largely reminiscent of the now shadow of his former self Mr. Ginn.
Loads of you out there are going to absolutely love this band. You're going to go crazy over them if you haven't already. I certainly would advise you to listen to them if you like that cockney knife pub stuff, as this is miles better than most of that drivel. If only less about it was so annoying.
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