Album Reviews: For the Boys
Ash - 1977
| Terrorvision - Regular Urban Survivors | Butthole Surfers - ElectriclarrylandAsh - 1977
 Sick Thrills : |
Firstly, I am not going to mention silverchair in
this review. (phew! Ed) What I will mention is just how
good this album is. 1977 is the first full LP by Ash and
it is a cracker. They have slowly, over the past year,
built up their reputation with a handful of singles that
stood out in 1995, and then came 'Goldfinger'. A bit of a
departure from the "pop/punk" label that has
been given to Ash since 'Kung Fu' (an ode to Jacky Chan
and all things Hong Kongish), but who can disagree that
this song has been "the one" for them. The
album contains all of the singles since 'Kung Fu' (that
makes four so far) and has many potential singles to
boot. The opener 'Lose Control' is a typical 70's style
'Glam Rock' song with that Ash twist. With tweeky guitars
and a great riff, it is a brilliant start to the album.
Down the other end of the scale, 'Oh Yeah' is a very
soppy ballad with a 30 strong orchestra. The next single
off the album, it is bound to follow 'Goldfinger's
success. My personal favorite though, is 'Let It
Flow". I don't know if this is going to be a single
but it damn well should be. This is the type of song that
makes you want bounce around the room or mime in the
shower. Overall the mixture between singles and 'others' is great, as at least half of the album predicted to be released on single format, a balance is made with the other songs. In short, this album HAS to be in your CD collection NOW!. Mic Law
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Terrorvision - Regular Urban Survivors
| From the very first glance at the CD
cover and flick through the accompening booklet, (based
on the James Bond films), you know Bradford's
Terrorvision haven't grown up one bit. Third album in and
they're still playing their brand of metal-punk-pop where
catchy songs and cartoon lyrics rule the day. The
abundance of guitar riffs, crunchy chords and shouted
vocals are supplemented with brass and orchestration on a
few tracks but mostly it's top class tunes and
tongue-in-cheek attiude which gets them by, especially
with songs like "Perseverance", "Dog
Chewed the Handle" and "Celebrity hit
list". Even the songs ones that start out a little
slower ("Didn't Bleed Red", "Bad
Actress") are turned into guitar or string anthems
come chorus time. The only real curve ball is thrown with
"Conspiracy" a beat box driven, sampled frenzy
reminisent of PWEI, which depending on your viewpoint is
a bold move forward or a derrivitive disaster. Maybe there is a need for a bit more subtley next time, but how can you dislike an album that has a dig at Oasis ("Superchronic") both via it's Supersonic drum intro and barbed lyrics ("Look Billy's singing autographs/He's got his head stuck in the clouds/His mouth is like a supergrass/'Cos when he talks he talks so loud")? Catchier than the flu but a whole lot more enjoyable. Rating (out of 5 trainers) |
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Butthole Surfers - Electriclarryland
Capitol/EMI
|
The Butthole Surfers are an amazing band. The band
themselves are unbelievably full of shit, their latest
album 'Electriclarryland' likewise reeks, yet somehow I
can't help but get into it. I know I shouldn't but damn
it it feels good. The album opens in a cacophony of
screams 'you can't do it its never been done before'
(Birds) but you know it has, a thousand times by a
thousand different American bands. Well so what, there
are enough tracks on this album on which the formula
works that the little indiscrepancies are worth putting
up with. And then there's "Pepper", what more
can be said. God it's good. You may not want to buy this
album, and being a brit Indie fan myself I can understand
that, but if you have the slightest doubt, the smallest
inkling to go out and get this one DO IT. After all it
can't hurt.
Rating (out of 5 trainers) |
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