THE CYANIDE PILLS
STILL BORED
Red Vinyl
Damaged Goods (2013)
This one was on the list from last year, just didn’t manage
to get it in 2013. I had checked out a few songs, thought they sounded pretty
good, and put it on the “I’ll get that one sometime” list. I finally tracked down an import recently.
Worth the wait, I think. This is a cracker, and it got back
to back runs on the turntable for quite a few days, and is still on high
rotation. This is great ’77 inspired stuff. The opening salvo of Can’t
get it up, (tongue in cheek, I assume), Up
against the wall, and Johnny Thunders
lived in Leeds had melodies revolving around in my noggin for about a week.
Gotta love a song that not only mentions
Johnny but gives a bit of a history lesson as well. Things slow up a bit with Teargas, but are back on track with the
infectious Apathy. I’m often
suspicious of songs that contain the word “dub”, but Lock up Dub manages to successfully marry melody with reggae/dub
beat, and is another one that gets stuck in your head. Good to see a successful
departure from the punk/powerpop mould, and a nod back to The Ruts and ’77 era
influenced reggae/punk perhaps.
The next couple of songs sit firmly in powerpop territory
(They even have a new non album single Waiting
for you to call me that has “70’s powerpop” as a heading on the front).
Whilst there’s nothing wrong their powerpop efforts here - they’re all still
solid tracks, it’s the punkier numbers that are more my preference. The album
is consistent though, and it’s a strong listen from start to finish. I just
hope they don’t fuck things up and embrace the powerpop side of things too
overtly in the future or they could be
in danger of turning into the Strokes. Not to worry, the foot gets back on the
accelerator a bit more with Formica and more so with Nonbeliever. Don’t turn right lifts side
two right up for my ears with its rawer approach. Still Bored closes with the buzzy Never gonna give it up, and if they stick to that manifesto,
things’ll continue to be great.
I’ve read a few reviews that mention comparisons with the
Buzzcocks, which I don’t understand. Yes, there are a few love themed songs,
but there’s no overriding unrequited love theme ala Pete Shelley. For my money
they echo closer to original ‘77 snotty power punk poppers The Boys, which is
no bad thing.
Package wise this is a pretty neat record. The cover is
prefab retro (at least done well). It even comes complete with faux-fading
(where the record inside would fade the cover in a circular mark) and I had to
look twice – I thought the seller backhanded me a crappy 2nd hand or
inferior copy. I like the cover though, the yellow and red contrasting colours,
works well with their theme. Red vinyl
is a bonus, and the sound is full, but not glossy or slick, and captures
everything quite well. Unfortunately, there’s no inner sleeve/lyric sheet,
which as you may have guessed, is bit of a bugbear of mine. All round, pretty
fricken’ good. Ya gotta love it when ya
get a record that looks and sounds good, and ya wanna keep giving it a spin,
and this comes up on all those fronts. Great stuff.
PUNK-
ROCK’N’FRICKENROLL VINYL ONLY chrismccousin@gmail.com
