Year of the Crow,
State RadioI’ll start by stating two simple facts:
1. I strongly dislike ska music
2. State Radio are really fucking good
Thankfully for State Radio they’re more rock-come-reggae than ska anyway (although there are a number of ska-ish infuences) and I feel slightly abashed to say I’d never even heard their name yet alone a song by them before the CD arrived on my doorstep for review. Personally I’ve never been a fan of any music that has entire verses crafted around up-stroke guitar chords (with the obvious exception of RX Bandits) but with Year of the Crow, State Radio have momentarily injected some life into a genre that’s otherwise been left to die a slow, stagnant and painfully drawn-out death.
Thankfully there’s not a horn in sight until track 7 and by this stage I was converted to the ways of all things SR. As the former voice behind Dispatch, Charlie Stokes’ versatile vocal delivery suits the music perfectly, interchanging with almost every track and the lyrics are thought provoking, passionate and full of rhetoric. ‘CIA’ is arguably the best out of a number of carefully crafted songs and the sound is monumental in the extreme for a band consisting of only three members.
The chances are if you’re reading this you’ll probably know more about State Radio than I do, in which case fair play. If however, like me, you haven’t heard of them before now then congratulations, you may have just found your new favourite band.
Rich Rowe
