- Artist
- The Ordinary Boys
- Label
- B-Unique
- Release date
- 23rd October 2006
- Genre
- Indie
After their debut album, Over The Counter Culture, Preston and the gang fought a rear-guard action to convince a sceptical world there was more to this Worthing four-piece than merely aping the sound of previous bands such as The Jam and The Clash. Arriving on the music scene at around the same time as the likes of Hard-Fi (to whom they now bear an uncanny resemblance) and Kaiser Chiefs, the 'Boys struggled to make a credible impression.
Despite this, their second album, Brassbound, actually charted higher than its predecessor, but still the claims that there is little depth to the band remained. How To... carries on much where the other records left off - namely lots of ska beats, punky mod sounds and songs regaling tales of urban living and streets paved with chewing gum-stained concrete.
The songs have a familiar feel to them: The Great Big Rip Off and Lonely At The Top just two slices of keen observation and happy-go-lucky tunesmithing, while Ballad Of An Unrequited Self-Love Affair, while completely lacking in any originality at all with its "paint-by-numbers" Madness rip-off, is bloody marvellous.
The band seemed to have survived Preston's incarceration in the Big Brother house, although his stint on the TV reality show has set back his band's ability to make judgements about the self-marketing motives and hypocrisy of others at whom they so love to aim barbs. Then again, maybe they're just growing up a bit...
