The Ordinary Boys - 'Over The Counter Culture' (B-Unique)
3/5
By: Matt Tomiak
With their Olde Englande romanticising, spiky late-70s guitars and bluntly straightforward tales of youthful frustration, The Ordinary Boys have been gaining as many admirers as detractors in recent months.
'Over The Counter Culture' - a sharp fusion of rapid-fire Buzzcocks/Jam punk-pop, early 80s ska and sprightly Boo Radleys orchestration - isn't going to change the mind of anyone who's already formed an opinion on the band. Head Boy Sam Preston is a bolshy, bilious and commendably angry young fellow, but still some way of short of his eloquent mentor: one Steven Patrick Morrissey; the band are named after a Morrissey track from 'Viva Hate.'
And it seems churlish to criticise the wordplay of an album so commendably spunky and melodic, but Moz would never come out with anything so glaringly... literal. King of the bedsit bards he may be, but even The Smiths' earliest work wouldn't contain anything quite as prosaic as the chorus of, say, 'Just a Song' ('I'll be sitting in the kitchen/Sipping lazy cups of tea/I've done nothing wrong/It's just a song') or 'Weekend Revolution', with its less than earth-shattering critique of the daily grind ('The daily drudge deals a mean hand/Menial commerce makes a mean man').
But while some of the wordplay might not contain the most eloquent of flourishes, 'Over The Counter Culture' remains an. Indeed, its brutal simplicity often works in its favour, such as on the title-track where Preston spits venom at bourgeoisie complacency and mainstream media, imploring 'You're just wrong, you're just wrong.' And it's the boisterous terrace-chant chorus of 'Talk Talk Talk' ('How's the weather? GREY AND
BORING!/It's back to work/ON MONDAY MORNING!') that represents the album's snarling highlight.
So yes, The OB's aren't particularly innovative. And yes, the decision to include a cover-version (a venomous take on The Specials' 'Little Bitch') by a band on a statement-of-intent debut, however retro, does seems a little odd. And yes, 'Over The Counter Culture' does feature perhaps the most outright bizarre sleeve-artwork of any album released this year. Nevertheless, its remaining 38 minutes is of an undiluted, apoplectic vision of a young man's vision of 21st Century Britain, with tunes and 'tude to boot.
Artists in this article: The Ordinary Boys
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