- Label
- Deltasonic
- Release date
- 2nd June 2008
- Genre
- Indie rock
- Buy this album
- Order CD
Psychedelic Scousers tread water with difficult third album
Possibly fearing creative stasis, the Zutons decamped to LA to record this third album, and Johnny Cash/Black Crowes producer George Drakoulis has certainly added a layer of blues-rock grittiness to their signature rollicking rhythms. Tracks like Harder And Harder and What's Your Problem are notably more linear than their usual eccentric machinations, and evoke Primal Scream and Reef respectively. Frankly, it's hard to see this as progress.
Singer Dave McCabe may have been bathed in Californian sunshine as he recorded the record, but his thoughts and lyrics remain stuck fast in grimy Britain. The grim Family of Leeches denounces ASBO-attracting feral families, Bumbag lays into benefits scroungers with Thatcherite vituperation and Freak is written from the defiant viewpoint of a rent boy who spends his days servicing "horny pensioners". The Zutons remain an acquired taste, and they may not find too many people buying this time around.
More to try: The Coral: Magic and Medicine Shack: HMS Fable Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Barafundle
