By no means awful, 'Raggamuffle' is the sound of the naivety of youth. It's a record choc-full of bad song titles ('GCSE maths', anyone?), sloppy musicianship and the kind of recording band's only ever do on their first release, but chip away at all of its obvious faults and The Skints are a lot of fun. They're far from perfect, but they're fun. And for a band which fuses punk and ska, that's exactly what you should be looking for.
This 7-tracker is very naive in its delivery. The production is pretty poor, with the guitars and drums sounding none too clever. The sax is pretty much the only instrument to escape the poor sound, while the vocals have their moments but all too often drift out of range by being over-ambitious. Capdown are probably an influence, Leftover Crack almost certainly so. Yet The Skints have a long way to go if they want to replicate the professionalism of either band. Practice makes perfect, the old adage states, and if The Skints are to make it anywhere in this tough musical world of ours, practice is definitely the key.
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