Listening to NIC ARMSTRONG the first time is a disconcerting experience. Checking out the Newcastle-born, Nottingham-based singer/ songwriter's second EP "Broken Mouth Blues" EP recently, your reviewer was magically transported back to a world where Dylan was still exclusively an acoustic folkie, LSD referred to currency and John Lennon was still a good couple of years shy of making his "The Beatles are bigger than Jesus" comment to Maureen Cleave.
How a young, 20something Geordie came to make such unerringly authentic rock'n'roll/ r'n'b sounds roughly circa 1964 is a matter of conjecture, though surely the fact Nic's heroes are first and foremost Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran and The Beatles must be significant, as must the fact he recorded debut album, the self-deprecatingly titled "The Greatest White Liar" with self-styled 'Duke of Analogue' Liam Watson at London's Toe Rag studios.
And, while I'm loathe to push the "so retro he's cutting edge" button, it's true that Nic Armstrong's sound does fit in nicely in a world where The White Stripes continue to win awards worldwide. Thing is, though, all that would mean zilch if his songs were rubbish. Thankfully, while he does wobble in places, most of what makes up "The Greatest White Liar" stands up to scrutiny on its' own merits.
Often, Nic's best tunes rock, as the stompy urgency of both opener "I Can't Stand It" and the early Who-style "Natural Flair" attest, while the catchy Beatle-isms of "I'll Come To You" are hard to deny and the dark psychosis of the closing "Mrs.The Moraliser" is an agreeable cacophony and a direction Armstrong wants to follow in future. There's a lot of sly humour, too, not least on "Down Home Girl" where Nic lovingly rips the piss out of both himself and good old authentic blues cliches (sample lyric: "Every time you kiss me girl, it tastes like pork and beans") and remembers to ally it to a bonzer, bouncy tune into the bargain.
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He's less consistent when he goes for the sensitive singer/ songwriter schtick, though. Surely, some of the tracks in this vein work out OK, such as the tender vulnerability of "In Your Arms On My Mind" and the buskalong "Scratch The Surface" - which has a charming naivete similar to The Small Faces' rustic favourite "The Universal" - but on other occasions such as the Humble Pie-style congas of "Too Long For Her" and the plaintive, but awkward "I'll Come To You" he over-reaches himself. On these songs, his gruffly attractive junior Eric Burdon voice can grate too.
Still, "The Greatest White Liar" is a solid and enjoyable debut album by a young lad who seems to be plugged into the original rock'n'roll source and sensibly doesn't want to question it too much. The fact he also provokes extreme reactions (friends of mine have veered from delight to disgust when I've tried this on them) would suggest he's definitely doing something right as well. More power to his elbow.
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