If you haven’t already heard, The Fight are English. Wait a second, I hear you cry, an English band who you’ve never heard of, that aren’t in anyway related to Snuff or Consumed, releasing a CD on Fat Wreck Chords? Well, they must be good! Right?
Hailing from that picturesque town of Dudley in the West Midlands, The Fight take all their cues from proper pop punk. By that, I mean they’re all fans of The Buzzcocks and sound a little like a female fronted Screeching Weasel, but with a lot of polish. There has been a lot of cynicism surrounding Fat Wreck’s decision to sign this vastly inexperienced and unknown outfit, and in a way, you can kind of see why.
While this 7 track EP is full of snotty female vocals, powerful riffs and melodic hooks the size of a small village (Dudley, perhaps…), there’s just something missing. The Fight have almost everything that, in the past, made a perfect poppy punk rock band, but they just can’t seem to create anything particularly substantial from these ingredients. For example, K8 (Or Kate, if we’re not talking in stupid text language) has a stunning voice and her slightly shady past in the manufactured pop band 20th Century Girls has clearly taught her how to carry a tune, but the words she sings merely wash over the listener in a flood of juvenile angst. Did Fat Mike learn nothing from those female fronted purveyors of monumental averageness, Tilt?
Opener ‘Forgotten Generation’ is fast, catchy and clichéd. The lyrics are cheesy and juvenile and the music is predictable yet hugely melodic and the gang shouts and whoa’s all seem to be shunted in at just the right moment. And herein lies the problem. As the Reunion Show recently sang, ‘It’s all be done before!’. There just seems to be so little passion, and a gaping hole where originality once reared its ugly head. ‘Fish Gang’ is a tepid pool of crunchy punk, failing to rise above average and outright refusing to take any risks in the name of creativity and ‘Greebo Wannabe’ (what is it with the awful song titles?) yet again rolls out the same old drum beats with the same old chunky riffs, not to mention almost cringe worthy lyrical subject matter.
Curiously, the catchiest chorus on here (and for a band who obviously pride themselves on big sing-along punk rock chorus’s, this is a slight problem) appears in ‘(I’m Running Around In) Circles’ which, if im not mistaken, is a cover. While ‘Stage School Kidz’ (For the love of god, whatever happened to proper English? The singer is called K8 for god’s sake! Oh well….) tries its hand at upbeat ska, and succeeds well, creating the most refreshing song on the record, it then all ends on ‘Revolution Calling’, which sounds like a reworking of any of the other 6 songs on here.
Now, The Fight clearly have potential, a possible punk rock icon in the shape of their vocalist, an ear for a tune (albeit a recycled one) and they are young and clearly passionate about what they do, but they really do have a long way to go. Why they are releasing an EP on Fat at their tender age (and I mean the band, not the members ….. they played a mere 5 gigs on home soil last year) I will never know, and I have a horrible feeling that in being promoted past the toilet venue circuit and having to work for their reputation, The Fight may win fans on mere curiosity but lose them after the first listen. This fact, coupled with their obvious talent, is disappointing, but, like the music contained on this shiny little disc, predictable.
Ross