Honest Don's Greatest Shits, Various Artists
Good old uncle don. You can always rely on him to rally his bands in an orderly fashion, getting them to line up and play for a compilation. I always envisage him as a rich aristocratic figure, a millionaire, who for some reason managed to acquire a small label as part of a commerical venture. Of course, with his vast wealth he could afford to hire many different bands.
Uncle Don is no fool however. I know this, because he started the sampler with Diesel Boy's 'Sleepy Soliloquy', 1:29 of punk rock mastery delivering everything you've come to expect from a quality DB song; opening with some defiant na-na-na-nas, a serious of connected statements make up the verse, with lyrics that show compassion but convey the purpose of the song perfectly - Diesel Boy's trick of taking a relatively simple chord progression and making it into an ace song is proved once again. Next up, the Teen Idols' 'When I hear your name' is little more than forgettable, and I did so in minutes. Pace it has, along with relatively good backing vocals, but in this day and age it just isn't enough.
The Mad Caddies however, evidently know how to have a good time. 'Monkeys' is pure comical/ska/lyrical genius, painting a picture of some wacky happy banjo horn section seaside next-to-the-popcorn-machine type act. It's a breath of fresh air, and hey - let's face it - everyone loves monkeys, from kings to paupers. Even when it descends into a kind of pantomime drag style rhythm, it still retains coolness. Limp start in an ominous fashion with 'Bag Lunch', it doesn't however become much more inspiring, mainly due to the vocals sounding disappointingly drone like; as though they don't belong - strangely listenable however. Anti-Flag's 'Tearing Everyone Down' contains the kind of angst riddled sound you'd expect from the artist, and it works relatively well, with some catchy hooks interspersed with furious shouting from the lead. 'Something's wrong' by Fluf is kicked into play by an immediately distinctive, strong voice which sounds like it should be fronting a middle aged musician's solo career - it sounds damn good however, a solo would have been nice three quarters through - but the moon on a stick is a hard thing to come by.
Chixdiggit start almost flatlining, with simple and utterly uninteresting lyrics; leaving you to wonder why on earth they bothered writing such as a laborious song, so we'll leave that one well alone - Hagfish's '100% women' doesn't sound that much better. The DHCs add a bit of panache to the compilation with 'Nuisance', and a slightly poor chorus doesn't detract - it becomes ever more likeable especially due to the cheeky horn interlude. I'm not a fan of echoing vocals, and as a result J Church do little to impress; apart from some admirable Hey! Hey!s brighten things up a little. 'Cup 'o tea' isn't up to the standard of the other Caddies hit on this very disc.
'The Critic' is far better, thankfully, and shows what Limp are capable of. It isn't enough to make this CD a great one however, so it makes it only in to the mediocre category, once again. Buy it with that spare change you found down the side of your sofa.
nick
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