Another day, another ska band and what can I say that I haven’t said before on the genre? (See upcoming column for recap!). Four Dumb Kids are a five peice hailing from Rotherham, Yorkshire and have seen more transfers in the band than West Ham have seen dodgy foreigners. This seven track EP/Sampler/album features your usual bouncy ska laiden punk tunes with the added essence of a song about the divine Susan Kennedy… alas I enjoy!
The band have been plodding along now for six years, which begs the question why haven’t they accomplished more in that time. Maybe deciding upon the name FDK was their problem after going through ‘Idiosyncrasy’ and ‘Doofus’ before settling on their current moniker.
‘Pick-Me-Up’ gives the album an energetic start, but unfortunatly the first problems arise with the brass section struggling to really come through audibly, which looks like a problem in the production phase. Luckily it doesn’t detract too much from a silky song. ‘Rubber’ is defunct of any brass tomfoolery and seems somewhat reflective upon listening closely to the melody which plods along at a fair old rate without ever engaging you to the max. ‘Nobody skanks in Rotheram’ is a huge step in the right direction with clever melodic turns of pace throughout which is sure to ignite any local dancefloor. The guitar is played at a lightning flow and is reminiscent of Reel Big Fish‘s earlier work. The five peice delve into a darker ska direction with ‘Quantum Leap’ which is an ode to the eighties cult show. The song doesn’t take itself seriously yet I find the lyrics strangley thought provoking.
Castigate me for saying this but the intro to ‘105’ reminds me of the first three seconds to ‘Sk8r Boi’ by little miss Lavigne. This does not reflect the views of the Punktastic crew, so please berate me. But for that first three seconds, the song reflects about days gone by and is a fairly strong track. ‘Question of Sport’ and ‘Susan Kennedy’ round off our short twenty minute trip in fine style with the former a superb instrumental track and the latter the cliched song of love for a fictional TV character which we all know and… begrudgingly love.
This is a very tidy little seven track number but unfortunatly suffers in some scruffy production work. Maybe I am expecting too much, but at times it just seems a little laboured compared to other CD’s of a similar nature. This is only a minor niggle though and it is a thoroughly enjoyable CD which ticks along nicely from start to finish.
Jay