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Album Review
by SashaS
6-7-2004
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More on: The Ordinary Boys
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| The Ordinary Boys: 'Over the Counter...' |
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The Ordinary Boys: 'Over The Counter Culture'
(b-unique)
The Ordinary Boys: the album of the summer?
Keane, Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, McFly… this quartet of ‘currently-coolest’ bands in the land is reason enough to understand why no Brit sportsman can win a trophy, be it at football or tennis or Formula 1!? Our dear nation’s gone soft and mellowed/soma’d/chilled out beyond competitive spirit. The culture, and in particular the drug of the nation - television, reflect this by making programmes that are hard to be exported anywhere in the world.
Occasionally music industry discovers a band that is worth all the hype, write-ups, promotion, gigs… Welcome to the world of The Ordinary Boys and their debut album ‘Over The Counter Culture’ that, at first, sounds like this Worthing outfit is paying homages to many an artist of the best Brit-vintage. References can be heard all over the debut CD: The Kinks, The Smiths, The Clash, The Jam, The Specials, Talk Talk Talk, … Witness (in the same order) ‘Weekend Revolution’, ‘Seaside’, ‘Little Bitch’ [with a little add-on of Madness nuttiness], ‘The List Goes On’, ‘Maybe Someday’…
The title track is like a blast of The Ruts being backed by the Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ horn section. There hasn’t been such a loud song of intent since ‘Alternative Ulster’, claims our Ed Chief. Rousing stuff but it is ‘Week In Week Out’, instantly connecting with a pleasure region, alongside ‘Talk Talk Talk’, that are modern working class anthems.
These are mainly teenage revolt songs that blast bands who recycle without moving ahead [‘The List Goes On’]; ‘Little Beach’ with its Specials’ spirit is irresistible, ‘Weekend Revolution’ takes on The Coral and wins effortlessly. The range of rhythms doesn’t exclude ballady and ‘Just A Song’ is a great excuse for couch intimacy.
Closing with ‘Robots and Monkeys’ that combines intensity with bemoaning of the self-induced materialistic fate of the human race, ‘Over The Counter Culture’ leaves you with a question of - what about other subjects? No opinions on Iraq, Bush or our dear PM? Although ‘The List Goes On’ expresses yoof’s feeling of powerlessness to affect the political system and thus go ‘weekend usurping’ (‘Weekend Revolution’, naturally), it is possible the Ordy Boys know only too well how apolitical, apathetic and a priori blinkered this gen is.
Binge-living and being ‘In Awe Of The Awful’: sociological topics are fine but they’ve always been subordinate to the political shaping of our reality… Economical issues are also extremely detrimental to the social order but, methinks, the Ordies shall get round to it in due course.
‘OTCC’ is sonically broad, confident and indignant with Brit-society’s obsession with celebrity, mortgaged lives and slavery-to-consumery. At times fierce but more angry, as in - pished off rather than feeling superior. But, the LP is superlative! A viper blueprint for the disillusioned, the downtrodden and the disenfranchised, it has all the makings of a modern indie classic.
8/10
SashaS
6-7-2004
The Ordinary Boys album ‘Over The Counter Culture’ is released 05 July 2004 by b-unique/WEA
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