The Enemy - We'll Live and Die in These Towns

The Enemy pride themselves on their working class roots, and have an unalterable belief that this makes for better music. However:

a) The idea of the glorious working class is a curiously British one. And British music is on its arse. With the best in the world being pretentious-but-lovable types from North America or Scandinavia, perhaps its time to try a different trick?

b) Half of Yorkshire is already on this class warfare bandwagon anyway, unified by their liberal references to Gregg’s or Smirnoff Ice or whatever proletarian buzzword is en vogue this week.

c) The band’s experience of true blue-collar toil is obviously as limited as their vocalist’s range, when you consider he’s only 18.

d) This is shite.

Before he got a little bit crap, Paul Weller was the Modfather, and the Jam were one of the biggest bands in Britain. Tracks like That’s Entertainment and A Town Called Malice perfectly chronicled small-town life, and were destined to become fixtures at every indie night, at every Old Skool night, and on every pub jukebox for the whole of eternity. I probably don’t need to tell you all of that, but the Enemy claim to not know who Paul Weller is.

What’s even more astounding is that despite this, they sound exactly like a very, very bad version of the Jam.

The album opens with Aggro, a typically ladrock-by-numbers tune about scraps and pubs, with not even the wit of an I Predict a Riot. It is, at least, loud, giving them the edge missing from their fellow Midlands dullards, the Twang, whilst sadly mimicking the pomp of yet more Midlands dullards, Kasabian.

Next up is the painfully catchy Away From Me, a bloody awful seen-it-all-before rant about crap towns, daytime TV and other similar social-commentary-in-crayon. “Don’t be a slave to the modern wage” is a line and a mantra so jaded you’re not entirely sure where it’s stolen from. The Jam? The Manics? Placebo?

Had Enough is only track four, but a more apt title you’d struggle to find.

Then, the title track, its horn intro sending a shudder down your spine as you struggle to contemplate the Enemy going ‘epic.’ Here, the Weller-vocals are at their most blatant, spitting a mess of clichéd sloganeering and a spirit-crushingly repetitive chorus.

You’re Not Alone raises the bar slightly, its marching rhythm section hinting there could be at least some, very raw, talent involved, and Technodanceaphobia will create far more foot-tapping than most, erm, technodance.

This Song drags things back down. It’s another idea above their station, starting like Doves’ Black and White Town, and lurching into A New England by Billy Bragg, but achieving little, and the album closes with the mawkish Happy Birthday Jane.

The biggest problem with We’ll Live and Die in These Towns and their ilk, is that if you’re sick of the mundane, the repetitive and the tedious, why would you want to add to it with an album as generic and monotonous as this?

The Best of the Year So Far. Maybe.

In no order, because it was hard enough to pick just ten to start with.

Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

Currently tearing up festivals the length of the UK, Win & Co. proved Funeral wasn’t a one-off with this.

El-P – I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

Proving there’s still life in hip-hop with the help of some alt-rock royalty.

Field Music – Tones of Town

Short, sharp brilliance; a metaphor for their career, if rumours of a split are true.

The Shins – Wincing the Night Away

Zack Braff’s shunt into the mainstream consciousness didn’t faze.

Blonde Redhead – 23

New York stalwarts create something special on their 7^th outing.

Justice – Cross

DANCE IS BACK!

Grinderman – Grinderman

Old man Nick Cave shows the youngsters how to rock. Or RAWK! Or something.

Panda Bear – Person Pitch

If the Beach Boys hired a choir and went even more mental, it’d sound like this.

Feist – The Reminder

A gorgeous record which reinforces Broken Social Scene’s supergroup status.

Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destoyer?

Last but not least, the best Canadian band which isn’t actually Canadian.

I could be wrong, like.

Los Campesinos : Sticking Fingers Into Sockets (EP)

Los Campesinos begin the second track on their new EP by weighing up how to find “the perfect match between pretentious and pop.”

Somewhere, they discovered the magic formula for just that. Name checks to Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia hint at their substance and an admirable grounding in alternative music, but they remain poles apart from the monologue-favouring Oxford post-rockers. Sticking Fingers into Sockets is sheer pop perfection.

The vocals can often remind you of Jamie T and his fellow LDN mob, but against the joyously twee sound of Camera Obscura and The Boy Least Likely To, with the childlike energy of Arcitecture in Helsinki; layered mentalism, but seemingly effortless.

In an age where ‘pop’ is a dirty word, associated only with mini-skirts and ITV, glorious summertime music, such as that of the Pipettes, has sadly often fallen by the wayside. It’ll be a huge shame if this Cardiff Uni seven-piece also end up in the Should Have Been Massive file, but on this evidence, that really shouldn’t be a danger.

We’ll have to wait to see if they can realise this potential across a full-length LP, but during that wait, you could do worse than to entertain yourself with You! Me! Dancing! Its the single of the year.