The band biog goes like this: “Mixing modern day rock influences with reggae rhythms and punchy beats, their music clearly points to a targeted audience more in touch with mainstream commercial music than just a niche market of ska or punk enthusiasts.” In all honesty this album sounds like a ska-punk album. Yes you’ll find elements of ‘musical exploration’ (poppy choruses, a reggae organ, even what I suspect is an accordion) but stripped down to the bare essentials, this is ska-punk. And just to make it clear, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Over twelve tracks Dublin based The Upgrades seem intent on trying out just about every intricate directional offshoot of ska music. ‘Square One’ is a typically sugar-pop number, a la Grown At Home. ‘Angel of Horror’ has a bigger sound that would just about fit alongside Voodoo Glow Skulls or Knock-Out. ‘You Should Know’ is a slower offering. ‘Rock’n’Fuck’n’Roll’, apostrophe raping aside, stands out in its endorsement of, well, rock ‘n’ roll. It’s still a ska track, but it’s got a little riffing to it.
In some ways this attempt to ‘widen’ the musical spectrum proves to be a little distracting. Whilst this is a very well produced album all crisp and sharp, a clean shaven record if ever there was one, it doesn’t truly excite until the final third. Having spent the better part of nine songs branching out and trying not to be skacore, ‘Something, I Dunno…’, the track that the album title derives from, bursts the seam and delivers a big Less Than Jake like skacore number. In tandem with the following ‘Friends & Idiots’ it’s here that you really grasp the essence of the band. This is The Upgrades‘ sound; big, poppy, brass-driven ska-punk; nothing more, nothing less.
‘Take a Risk’ is a good record that I suspect would have enjoyed a reasonable amount of success during the Moon-Ska era of Whitmore et al. It’s fair to say though that this willingness to experiment and try to generate a new sound is enough to at least spawn some relevance, and whilst it’s not entirely successful in its bid to be ‘different’, it is definitely worth a listen.
Alex