Last Rockers Records LR7
TRACK LIST :
1. Stuck In Reverse
2. Punk Is The Blues
3. Punk Rock Radio
4. End of the line
5. Seventies Misogyny
6. Sick Of Being Poor
7. Advance Britannia
8. LA Low
9. Him Indoors
10. Punk Rocker
11. Done Before
12. Are You Looking At Me?
13. UK OK
CD available now - an absolute MUST for all Vice Squad fans old and new.
You can preview songs and order your copy from the official VICE SQUAD website here now: http://www.vicesquad.co.uk/vicesquadshop/punkrockradio201.html
OUR REVIEW:
There are some really superb songs on this new CD - some may be a little autobiographical, for example: "Punk Rock Is The Blues" bemoans the hard work that Punk bands have to put in for very little reward while "Seventies Mysogyny" looks at how women are still very much viewed as second class citizens in many areas of modern life.
As you'd expect there's a lot of social comment with inequality and greedy money men firmly in the cross-hairs -check out "Sick Of Being Poor" and "Done Before"
A highly thought provoking "End Of The Line" deals with a suicide bomber on an underground and how the aftermath led to the mistaken police shooting of an uninvolved man (presumably inspired by the case of Jean Charles De Menezes) while "LA Low" talks of wanting to cloud over California and impose British weather - making it rain....!
Then there's "Him Indoors" which is a humorous - but sadly probably true - statement about some of the less appealing specimens of the male population. The big question here is: was this based on anybody in particular...?
However, there are a few great rousing anthems as well: "Advance Britannia", "UK OK" and our current favourite, "Punk Rocker", which we previewed in our Vice Squad radio special show on 25th November (listen again here now: http://www.bestkeptsecrets.biz/2011/11/listen-again-vice-squad-interview.html)
In short: the new "Punk Rock Radio" album carries on where "London Underground" left off: a great collection of new cutting edge songs full of observation, social comment and some bouncy new punk melodies and I would urge all Vice Squad fans old* and new to check it out.
*There are people who still hold up the original Vice Squad line up as some sort of benchmark of punk perfection to the detriment of tyhe current Bond/ Rooney version. I have to say that, as fan myself of over 30 years' standing, that is rather unfair and this "new" line up (they have been going now since 1997...) are excellent to watch live and they produce some damn' good records as well. You can never go back - so just look forward...!
