Fifteen Songs of Bree,
Buck-o-nineFifteen songs of cheese, all lined up for us to eat. Buck-O-Nine can be poorly described as a very upbeat ska punk band for those of you who have yet to sample their audio delights; before now i'd only heard a few of the tracks from their ample collection - round kid, which was superb and calling in sick, which as it happens resides on this very CD. Truth is i'm still not entirely decided about the band as a whole - like a monkey with a flintstones phone, i'm just not entirely sure what to make of it.
The first thing that you'll notice is the distinctive voice of the lead - and it's pretty safe to say you'll either love it or despise it; to me, it sounds sort of repressed but at the same time permanently on acid - odd, I know, but my vocabulary doesn't stretch very far. Anyways, onto the tracks - 'On a Mission' starts the show with a relatively small bang, with an extremely mundane opening things didn't look good, it almost manages to save itself by an entertaining chorus - but just couldn't make it and I was left bored until the end of the song. 'Calling in Sick', thankfully, is far better. It has what you'd expect from a band of this calibre, with some ecstatic trumpets and the cheekiness shining through - 'I've never worked an 8 hour day', with an entertaining interlude adding that little bit of spice to the proceedings. 'Barfly' sports some go faster stripes as the insanely fast ska guitar kicks in relatively close to the beginning. I can't help wondering that Buck-O-Nine simply repeat the same formula within every song however; there'll be a different intro, followed by the verse (lone ska guitar with vocals) and then a slight change for the chorus. Apart from a slow in pace toward the end, 'Barfly' doesn't break the trend.
Surprise Surprise, 'Water In My Head' does exactly the same, and starts to annoy;'Pass the Dutchie' opens in stadium rock stylee and is the first to break the aforementioned chain; eventually speeding up as some funky trumpets enter the foray, but yet again it just doesn't satisfy. 'More than The Eyes Can See' starts extremely promisingly, but falls flat, with the patented lone guitar, lone vocals rearing their heads. 'Poor Boy' isn't worth much time either, serving as minor obstacle before the entertaining 'Dr Kitch' which easily one of the more listenable tracks, but starts to grate like an over zealous cheese-monger after a while. 'Few Too Many' is pulled along by a poor chorus, differing refreshingly in the middle for a relatively good bridge.
One of the diamonds in the rough, 'Junior' comes far too late in the CD to change my mind about the band as a whole, but, it has to be said this song is absolutely ace. Why on earth weren't there more like this? 'Milk', the following track also hints at genius with an utterly impressive horn section, parping in succession then handing it over to the lead. Something about the song seems to fit perfectly into place, it's just a pity the former tracks tarred the record with their brush. 'Positively Shelby' and 'Full metal Bree' seem more average compared with the former two, but op ivy cover 'Sound System' is damn satisfying and the record is starting to look a little better - 'True or False' ends it in an ultimately stylish blues rhythm, and the real excellence of Buck-O-nine shines through.
It's the kind of turnaround that makes you shake your fist up at the sky and scream "WHY!" at full volume, because if they cut this in half with a pair of scissors, i'd definitely buy the latter half. As it is, it has to sit in the sin bin, and think long and hard about what it is.
nick
