September 2008 Archive |
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The Enemy U.K.
We'll Live and Die in These Towns
By George A. Paul
These days, you’d be hard pressed to find many teenage musicians writing rock songs about working class issues. But that’s exactly what Tom Clarke did on The Enemy U.K.’s brilliant debut disc, which entered the British charts at No. 1 and spawned four top 20 singles. Inspired by The Who and Sex Pistols, the fresh-faced trio was formed two years ago in Coventry. It quickly forged a reputation for explosive live shows, opened a 2007 Stones gig in London and signed to the newly rejuvenated Stiff Records. The album gets off to a stomping start with “Aggro,” featuring an Oasis-worthy chorus. A frantic Manic Street Preachers-styled “You’re Not Alone” revolves around the hometown Peugeot auto plant closure that sent hundreds to the unemployment queue. Clarke focuses on the powers that be in a snarling, distinctively English accent: “you live in an incestuous world where your conscience holds no weight/you sold us down the river like rats.”
Mournful horns open the sweeping title track amid glockenspiel, an early Jam vibe and picturesque lyrics: “you spend your time in smoky rooms where haggled old women in cheap perfume say it never happens for people like us.” Elsewhere, there’s a pair of feisty, sexually charged tunes a la Franz Ferdinand (“Techno Danceaphobic,” “40 Days and 40 Nights”) and a poignant, gorgeous cut about wasted ideals (“This Song is About You”). The U.S. edition of These Towns includes two bonus tracks — notably a faithful, yet still ace cover of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust classic “Five Years.” Looks like the Arctic Monkeys have some new competition.
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