The Ordinary Boys - How to Get Everything You Wanted in Ten Easy Steps (B-Unique)
2/5
By: Keri Kennedy
After listening to the third LP from Sam Preston (yes, his name is Samuel) and his band, you could say they've finally, inevitably, sold out. And that's not including said frontman's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, subsequently entering into marriage (and selling the photos to OK!) with fellow housemate and token blonde Chantelle. 'How to Get Everything...' is a polished collection of tracks about the obsession with celebrity and fame, Preston himself proclaiming that "it's a totally self deprecating, ironic look at all of that..."
What is ironic though, while he sings "This is a song for all my close friends/anonymous neighbours with stories to sell" in 'Lonely At The Top', is that with Preston now a B list celebrity in his own right, surely he should have known that entering the realms tabloid fame would bring all the invasions of privacy? Surely everyone knows that? Evidently not.
Private life aside, this as an album doesn't do much to stir the imagination. They've taken to electro rather than their original ska influences, though that still raises its head occasionally. 'The Great Big Rip Off' and 'We've Got The Best Job Ever' are like bad Kaiser Chiefs pastiches, with plenty of oh oh's and hand claps, while 'Club Chez Moi's pounding chorus is a poor mans Hard-Fi (if such a thing were possible). The 2-Tone beat of 'Nine 2 Five' is a simply cringeworthy remix of the Lady Sovereign original, but it's catchy as hell. That, unfortunately, makes it no less horrible.
There is no argument that The Ordinary Boys can write a catchy tune, and you can't really fault the swing beat of 'Lonely At The Top' or the closest thing to their biggest hit, 'Boys Will Be Boys': 'The Higher The Highs'. But that's as good as it can get, the rest is just pretty bland pop.
Shoved at the end of the album (notably not on the promo) is a new version of 'Boys Will Be Boys', and no doubt all the fans (mainly Heat! magazine reading 30-something women who find Preston cute) garnered from his BB stint will rush out to buy the album on the basis of this. You can't really blame the guy for dragging his failing band back into the limelight, gaining two top ten singles and a top twenty album in the process. Proof in itself that the obsession with celebrity sells records, and Preston, of all people, shouldn't really be complaining about it.
Artists in this article: The Ordinary Boys
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