If somebody came up to you and said, "This place is such a shit-hole"; you’d probably tell them to move or to shut the fuck up. But when somebody you don’t know says it over a few guitar chords, you’ll sing along with them with a big grin on your face. You’ve got to love that.
If somebody came up to you and said, "This place is such a shit-hole"; you’d probably tell them to move or to shut the fuck up. But when somebody you don’t know says it over a few guitar chords, you’ll sing along with them with a big grin on your face. You’ve got to love that.
Good Shoes – Good Shoes
Good Shoes follows in the long line of illustrious British albums where the band spend half their time saying, "We live in a small town and its shit!" I know, you’re getting excited already, and you should be because this is a cracking little album. The shit place in question this time is Morden, which is somewhere darn sarf. As in, near London somewhere. Apparently it’s not a very nice place.
"I saw the flowers lay where a car crash took place / A drug dealer crashed into a chicane / It sort of sums up where we live."
Of course, that sounds like pretty much everywhere doesn’t it, and that’s the point. You’ll relate to this. It sounds familiar. It’s an album full of self consciousness. Steeped in self pity and paranoia and its just great. There’s something great about rock music. It’ll let you forgive almost anything. Let’s face facts. If a friend of yours came up and said, "I’m having trouble with girls," you’d simply tell him to have a wank and get over it. If somebody came up to you and said, "This place is such a shit-hole"; you’d probably tell them to move or to shut the fuck up. But when somebody you don’t know says it over a few guitar chords, you’ll sing along with them with a big grin on your face. You’ve got to love that.
We all love a good whinge; we just don’t like to hear friend’s whinging. Rock stars are better when they whinge on the other hand, otherwise they end up in the Eurovision Song Contest. Good Shoes has a lyric bag so childish, immature and petty it should come with ejaculating penises and hearts with IDST scrawled in black marker all over them. This is a school bag of an album and once again I’ll repeat. It’s great.
Musically, it’s a gas. Fast and frenetic with more stops and starts than George Foreman’s boxing career. The lyrics may be petty and childish (as we like them) but the music is incredibly well structured. At times it feels like each different member is playing a different song, with only the vocal holding a melody but it works. Just listen to We Are Not the Same, it’s all over the place but boy is it entertaining. Or Small Town Girl, which is one part Billy Bragg, one part Gang of Four and two parts Blondie, which brews up into a heady little concoction indeed. This is a fair step away from the Beach Boys, but Good Shoes will remind you of what it feels like to be a teenager. The good news is you won’t want to punch them for it.
This comes highly recommended.
Words: Damian Leslie