Little Barrie - Stand Your Ground (Genuine)
2/5
By: Matt Tomiak
The second album by the surprisingly long-serving Nottinghamshire trio (they've been releasing records since the turn of the century) is a schizophrenic affair. Bizarrely, Dan The Automator's on production duties here, but there are no head-melting electro mash-ups to be found. Instead, the record is dominated by a frugal, bare-bones bluesy kind of sound, whose unfussy but rather dry sonic textures pale after a while.
'Stand Your Ground' opens with the largely unpalatable Jamiroquai-ish funk 'Bailing Out', but follow it with the spartan-yet-rambunctious 'Love You', recalling the uncomplicated abandon of early Jet. The leisurely 'Yeah We Know You' recalls the agreeably chilled-out melodicism of Athlete's first album, whilst 'Pretty Pictures' rattles with the cacophonous, unrestrained spontaneity of The Coral's early days.
'Cash In', meanwhile, offers a Neil Young meets Paul Weller harmonica-led, uber- authentic blues workout, in which singer Barrie Cadogan utters a variety of things that no one in the band's home town of Beeston surely ever says: at one point informing us that he 'ain't gonna cash in on the passion no more.'
Occasionally they get bogged down with their reverence for the past - 'Green Eyed Fool' appropriates the chorus of Primal Scream's 'Rocks', hook, line and sinker- but there's enough variation in terms of style and mood across 'Stand Your Ground' to give Little Barrie the benefit of the doubt.
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