Jamie T - Fire Fire (Pacemaker)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
The opening part to 'Fire Fire' can definitely be classified as a 'what the/why the/how the?' kind of first thirty seconds. Jamie T, ladies and gentlemen, has gone hardcore punk.
The song doesn't settle the whole way through, but it settles with you rather well, as you realise more with each yell that it's done with a good heart by a man who clearly knows a lot about the kind of music he's making here. Jamie has aimed for the true hardcore sound that he has in his record collection (Black Flag, Crass, that kind of thing), but in all honesty, it ends up sounding a little bit more like The Beastie Boys when they returned to their hardcore roots with the Olio E Agolio EP. Maybe it's the still-present cockney accent (the only thing that links this to past Jamie T efforts), maybe it's the video, but there's something definitely a bit frat boy about Jamie's take on punk.
Still, it's a right hoot - and it works all the better for being slightly tongue in cheek, and self referential. Oddly, it's for this reason that you don't take it as a novelty - he understands the fun inherent in playing this kind of music, as aggressive as it initially sounds. I'm looking forward to hearing you play this one live, Jamie - slip it in after one of your more Jack Johnson numbers.
So sure, he's not a master of this particular craft and there's no real reason for it to go on for nearly three minutes (it's made, and reiterated, it's point by 01:30). But this still endears me to Jamie T no end. It's not on the forthcoming album. It's not a single, not properly. He's giving it away for free - HERE. But he's made a video for it. And he's got a lot of people - some who didn't even like him in the first place - saying complimentary things about his desire to step outside of his comfort zone. Including us - here's an example; well done, Jamie.
WATCH THE VIDEO TO 'FIRE FIRE' HERE:
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