Float Like A Butterfly,
Pama InternationalFrustrating – the one word review of these 8 tracks. The latest release from Pama International is one of the most annoyingly trite albums I have heard in a long time, combining lazy lyrics with a painful grasp of poppy-trad ska to create a truly forgettable collection.
I know that may sound needlessly harsh but as I've said dozens of times, good ska is fantastic but bad ska is just heinous and this, dear reader, is bad ska. Just check out the title track for an exercise in boredom, plodding along without any visible direction, and throughout the album the lyrics on display could easily fall into the category marked 'Lame faux-hippy shit about nothing in particular'. Again, perhaps overly brutal but the fact remains that while Smoke Like A Fish have managed to update this sound with a stark social commentary, this sounds like the sort of crap you'd get on the Saga Cruise to A Living Hell.
'Man Bites Dog' makes a cursory attempt to be interesting but is handicapped by an apparent inability to really say anything – the only relevant question posed is the oh-so taxing “What the fuck is going on with our world?” and let's be honest, you don't have to be Chomsky to wonder that nowadays. I'm not criticising Pama International for not being the most politicised of bands, but they say nothing whatsoever that's worth listening to. And the music fits too, bland keyboards underlining the off-beat and unadventurous vocals that sound like they've been recorded after one too many mugs of Horlicks – no urgency, no passion, no point. I suppose they should be given some credit for trying to introduce a tinge of soul on 'It's Going To Be Beautiful' but the execution is, again, lazy, and has makes the song sit somewhere in the middle, totally devoid of interest. It's a shame to have to slag an album off this much, but when put next to the rest of Do The Dog's roster it crumbles into the background.
Ben
www.pamainternational.co.uk
www.dothedog.com
