X (Cakehole Records) 2007
As drummer Alka handed over the CD he said “I know it aint your cup of tea, but see what you think.” He is right; this album ticks none of the boxes of the sort of stuff that we usually listen to, except one. That one box is talent. The tick in that talent box is so big and bold it spills out and makes the other boxes irrelevant; damn this is a good disc! This comes as a shock, the only other stuff we have in our collection that comes even close to this sort of ‘pop’ would be Prefab Sprout, Lloyd Cole or maybe the Pale Fountains. This is grown up pop music of the highest order; this is how the Beatles might have turned out if they had matured without going down the ‘Sgt Pepper’ route (and getting shot). Sharp lyrics, beautiful melodies, warm vibes.. perfect pop basically!

It is all fairly laid back stuff and none of the more rockin’ tunes from the live set find their way onto this disc. Love features heavily throughout, “I don’t need to be told what to do, in return I will not tell you, if any one expects perfection, well poor you, you’ve got a long wait if you do“ Skipin Clouds tells us… Amen to that my son! ‘Gotta Know Your Name’ tells of wanting to get to know a beautiful stranger; ‘Me and You’ is a tale of a doomed relationship and hints at the mellowness of Pink Floyd’s ‘Pigs On The Wing’. One of the best CDs we have come across for a very long time, but we cannot really explain why and have no idea where to file it... somewhere we can put our hands on it easily probably!

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Deadline (split CD) (Fat wreck Records 2007)
15 track split CD featuring the UK’s very own Citizen Fish and US outfit Leftover Crack, with a little bit of help from Dave Dictator from Millions of Dead Cops and the one and only Jello Biafra.

Citizen Fish have been around since 1990. If you take into account the ancestry of the band, which has members of The Subhmans and Culture Shock in the line up, the core of the band have been together in one form or another since 1980. Now it is not unheard of for bands to hang around for that length of time, but it is fair to say most of them should have hung up their guitars long ago. The Fish, however, are as relevant now as they were ‘back in the day’, which goes someway to explain their continued respect from both fans and peers. Their high-octane ska punk just gets better with age and the lyrics are as poignant as ever; after all, as long as the system remains fucked up Dick will have inspiration for his lyrics. Money, work, global warming, rebellion and war are among the subjects touched upon but being Citizen Fish, never in a predictable way. While they are at it two cover versions are thrown in, ‘Money’ by Choking Victim (previous incarnation of Leftover Crack) and ‘Clear Channel’ by Leftover Crack themselves.

Apprehension is probably the best word to describe how we approached US crustcore mob Leftover Crack. We had not come across them before and had visions of some cartoon style punk thing going on. We were presently surprised though to find that this half of the album is actually quite good and makes a good companion to the Fish. There are some chunky power riffs and overall we get a hardcore Rancid vibe. The mutual respect thing continues with cover versions of ‘The Supermarket Song’ by Citizen Fish and ‘Reason For Existence’ by The Subhumans.

The whole thing is wrapped up nicely in a nice little digi pack complete with a lyrics book and cover art by Citizen Fish’s Dick Lucas. In general we remain unconvinced by the split LP/CD concept, but this one works well, both bands complimenting each other and if helps as an introduction to the band that you didn’t buy it for then we cant really complain.

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COSMO

HOME THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD (COSMO RECORDS) 2007
Recorded pretty much on the fly during his recent trip to Brazil at various locations on a mini disc the album contains songs penned at various points in his ‘musical journey’, some of them going back quite a few years. Its mostly him, just him, on guitar, harmonica and vocals, although there are two wicked little dubs at the end where some mates provide backing with bass and drums. Oh, nearly forgot, there is also some wild birds singing backing vocals, and various frogs, for the tracks recorded in the rain forest and.. erm.. the Brazilian Army! (?).

Cosmo does not need to think too hard when he writes a song because he is a soul searching philosopher that is constantly thinking about the meaning of life, questioning why life is the way it is, occasionally getting angry about it, wondering what can be done to put it right, and trying to work out whose round it is. When he writes songs he merely opens up his head and lets everyone in on what he is thinking, so here we have songs about love, travel, protests, insecurity and more. It’s a warm little album that makes you feel like you are having a cup of fair trade coffee in his bedsit at 2am, sharing confidences and looking for lighters. Buy it, he needs the money!

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