BFB have been steadily building a reputation for their wild country flecked tunes bedecked with smart and humorous lyrics. Taking a slightly different tack on this offering they maintain their lyrical quality while foregoing the opportunity to further develop their reputation as the bad boys of UK alt.country. But, believe me, that’s no bad thing because what we get instead is an album crammed full of superb indie pop with a healthily beating punk rock heart and, a country tic that pops up and splendidly offends like a tourettes outburst.
Opener ‘You’re Like A Woman’ starts slowly in familiar BFB style before tearing off on a chugging Clash-like riff, pounding drums and driving bass. It’s fantastic even before it hits the mid-section where bass & drums keep up the momentum while the guitars drift off on some ambient reverie before thundering back for the charge to the end – if this doesn’t have you leaping around the living room then man, you gotta be dead!
‘It’s All Over’ begins as a far more sedate affair, beautifully sung, it’s sad and plaintive but builds and builds towards a heart crushing finale, chiming guitars and squalls of feedback not a million miles from the sonic masterpieces that Mogwai create. Similarly, ‘I See How You Are’ constructs a second half brimming with barely controlled guitar noise and we’re thinking sonic youth at their best, the tension within the track is almost unbearably sweet. The first overtly country flavouring doesn’t emerge til track 4, ‘The Booze And The Drugs’ but even then its tempered by overloaded guitars.
|
‘I’m Thirsty’ is quite simply magnificent. Over rolling bass and drums, off-kilter guitars push and pull the tune to forbidden territories while Steven Adams sings, “You’ve been the queen of kiss-off kickbacks, big time roller, my payola on a string”. ‘Come on Home’ in vast contrast, is a lethargically pleading, unwanted love song, part unsettling obsession, part hopeless heartbreak. “I want you to die with my hands round your throat”, so begins sweet and tender country duet (with Piney Gir) ‘Alone In The Make-Out Room’, Gir responding, “I wanna watch you swing from a tree or fry in a chair looking at me”. The litany of unpleasant situations that the pair dream up for each other are astounding in both their variety and imagination.
Elsewhere, ‘Michelle’ offers a blatant nod to Brit-pop, the bastard son of Justine and Damian bouncing along like ‘Parklife’ but possessed of the edgy Wire-like qualities of Elastica and actually growing head and shoulders above both. And of course there’s album closer, Leonard Cohen’s ‘Diamonds In The Mine’ – a totally irreverent slab of punk-country hokum that leaves you gagging for more. If you hear a better album this year by a British artist I’ll eat my shorts and your shorts. Superb!!
|
