And here we have it. A full length LP with Eric Richter doing all the singing. Hurrah and celeberations. Whilst
the 101 is plainly seperate from Christie Front Drive, it is still nice to note that the following things are all
in full effect:
- most of the song titles are one word
- Eric mumbles almost all the vocals and you invent your own version of his words
- there are no lyrics with the record, which assists in the 2nd point above
This LP gets off to a fast start with the energetic melodic opener, “Never In”, which sets the blueprint for atypical 101 song – simple and repetetive verse, catchy and repetetive chorus. There were never many different
words in CFD songs, that also applies here. It works a treat. The guitars gun at a fair pace for indie rock,
sweeping the tune along and you off your feet. More is in store on the following 10 tracks that span what, just
over half an hour? I’ve not quite timed it. The faster, catchy stuff is reminiscent of Superchunk with little
pieces of CFD dropped in for good measure. The twinkling guitars are replaced by a simpler, less pretty indie
rock “crunch”, with various effects laden in here and there – Eric’s time in Antarctica and apparent affection
for British shoegaze is noticable, especially on the outro of final track “Regret” which merrily buzzes with
distortion and skewed guitars. “Wife” takes a different direction with a lovely squelchy intro with keyboards and
bass rumbling, super fun, superchunk. “Generals” opens up the second side with an elongated intro, before
building up into an excellent song, it’s the kind of tune you want to last even longer once it gets there, going
through the anticipation and with the song gaining in energy.
“Beth” bucks some of the trend by having audible lyrics at the start, pfffft!, it’s probably the poppiest song on
here, but that’s no bad thing. It’s gentle and quiet initially, before elevating the volume and accelerating into
the repetetive rest of the song. Smart. “Fucked Up Job” is probably the weakest track, sounding like an out-take
from the debut CDEP. “Bus Fare” doesn’t quite measure up for me either, but never mind. Actually, I have listened to “Bus Fare” again now and it’s excellent. Heh.
So overall, this is a very decent LP. I think the more I listen to it, the more I will realise there will never
be another Christie Front Drive, and that the 101 are a very good band in their own right, and I will enjoy this
even more. As it stands, I like it a lot, and I think if they hang around long enough they’ll drop some very
impressive records on us in the future.