In
tradition handed down by time The 'Aches start as they mean to go on,
rightly, all fat, fuzzy, earth rupturing drums, wired guitars and oh so
slightly distorted vocals for that Raw Power / LAMF effect. They
unfortunately just mean it as opposed to doing it. Wayne Kramer and co's
supposedly inflammatory opening speech to "Kick Out The Jams" is
appropriated on opener (who's title I appear to have forgotten to write
down), adding a little bit to it on their way, but they ain't another
hollow-cheek-boned-hollow-headed set slavishly aping The '5's rhetoric
claptrap. Rather they're far more heads down bar-room bruisers
masquerading as punk, elements of AC/DC, Motorhead, Rose Tattoo and The
Vibrators along with lashings of typical trite punk themes - boredom, do
your own thing, don't need you la la la la la la la. Which, of course,
isn't a bad thing it's that this just chugs along at one level, y'know
like looking out the window on a train journey you soon get bored by the
blur of fields - "ooo look there's a farm house" - or the old market
trader in a little backwater Yorkshire town quite content to suck on his
pipe all day sat at his stall occasionally saying morning or giving a wave
to old Doris as she goes to Harold the butcher's to get some liver and
pork sausages for Arthur's tea, and throughout the day sells only a few
bananas and the odd scabby 'taty. Judging by the pics of him with a rather delectable Gretsch I'm figuring the guitarist was responsible for kickstarting the ailing hearts of "Misunderstood" and "Don't Need Your Love"- spindly and elastic little riffs revelling in rawkabilly glory that then get tragically slaughtered before they've even left the trench by being engulfed in such clodhoppingly heavy handed drumming that all power to wreak some psychobilly pillage is squandered. Similarly on the "I Wanna Be Your Dog"-ish "I Used To be A Loser", all sauntering tremeloed guitars and backwoods, ghoulsy menace the chances of some real meaty Crampshenanigans are there for the taking it just doesn't manage to get the revs up to get where it so desperately needs to be. Which is a shame as there are signs of improvement. "Fade To End" fizzes about like a big boulder of sodium hitting water, "All My Fault" adds something in the mix in the shape of keyboards but that leaves them sounding like The Stranglers, albeit thankfully The Stranglers circa No More Heroes, seen as they didn't really pull too many other treats outta the goodiebag. All in all tho, this isn't totally lame by any means, just doesn't in any way see them starting as they mean to go on. There are a couple of corking tunes in here to turn up and blast out, but that indicates it could and should be a whole lot better.