The Ordinary Boys - 'Brassbound' (B-Unique)
3/5
By: Matt Tomiak
The Ordinary Boys are still pissed off. And still making a bloody great racket about it.
Much like last year's debut 'Over the Counter Culture', Preston and co's second album is packed with brass-drenched, ska-tinged, thorny observations on the everyday, bristling with ire and dissatisfaction.
And just as before, the nods to Britain's glorious musical past
remain plentiful. The title track's crunchy opening bars are virtually identical to The Jam's 'Going Underground'; 'Life Will Be The Death Of Me' (surely the most Morrissey-esque title this side of 'You Are The Quarry') wears its 'London Calling' influences firmly on its sleeve. The petulant 'Thanks To The Girl' directly invokes The Kinks' 'Dead End Street' via the lyric 'Is that what you're hoping for?/A kitchenette on the eleventh floor?' That Preston derides some unknown target with the claim 'You cling onto a vintage way of life/Don't accept that it should be left behind' on 'One Step
Forward (Two Steps Back)' shows some gall to say the least.
So it's clear by now that the Worthing lads favour oomph over innovation, and that such an approach flourishes in the live arena rather than on record. But their straightforward strategy occasionally yields corking results. 'Boys Will Be Boys', that raucous, Specials-tinged paean to the uncomplicated pleasures of disorderly laddish fun, is a case in point. It really epitomizes the band: whilst they're saying or playing very little that could be described as original, it's nevertheless rather difficult not to derive at least some pleasure from it. Whether they can get away with
continuing this approach over a third album remains a moot point, but on 'Brassbound' The Ordinary Boys' tried and tested formula retains it appeal.
Artists in this article: The Ordinary Boys
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