Labels: Bitter and Twisted Records
Review by: MH
This is a blast from the past. Midway Still. I saw this band on many occasions playing gigs with the likes of Mega City Four, Bivouac and Jacob’s Mouse while I was an impressionable youngster of questionable music taste. I even went to a few of their headline shows. I read the other day that they are doing a show soon to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their first album “Dial Square”. 20 years! “What have I done with my life?”, I ask myself. Probably not a lot but that is beside the point. Anyway, I quite liked this band at the time, although I was never that keen on the vocals or the guitar solos that seemed to crop up towards the end of most of their tracks. Every now and then I stick a few tracks on the ipod. They don’t all stand the test of time but I still like the odd track like “Wish” and “Just Get Stuck”. Â I know they did a comeback album a couple of years ago but I haven’t heard it. I did stumble across an EP on Spotify last year and don’t recall much from it apart from a couple of questionable cover versions including “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”. Anyway, they are a band that remind me of old friends and good times. Like the time the singer, Paul, signed my friend’s t-shirt with the immortal words, “Dec’s a cunt”. My friend who was 14 at the time was initially thrilled to have the shirt signed…then quickly realised that he could no longer really wear the t-shirt as his Mum wouldn’t be happy at what the singer had written. The same singer, Paul, who can lay claim to the fact that at least a decade earlier than Nickelback ever existed he looked more like the singer from Nickelback than the singer from Nickelback ever did. I also recall winning a signed copy of their debut LP on the now defunct Gary Crowley show on Greater London Radio. My brother used to win records on that show so many times that Boy William (the bloke running the competitions) banned him from trying to win. His way around this was to put on a different voice and get them sent to his friend’s house. This used to work until the competition runner worked out his scheme and recognised his different voices – “Is that James? Is that James again?” My 13 year old brother then called him a “dickhead” and it was all over. Honestly, we used to win most of the competitions on that show – the things we used to win on there…The Milltown Brothers! The Dylans! Cud! Cud I tell you!
Anyway, “Enough of your personal reminiscing!”, I hear you cry. So what is the new album actually like? Well, maybe nostalgia has me by the throat but I’m quite enjoying listening to it and it is probably the most consistent of the three albums that I have heard. It isn’t a major departure from their old sound and the guitar sound is familiar. Whereas with the earlier albums I found them to be a bit inconsistent and would skip through some of the tracks, I’m finding most of the songs to be more listenable. They fly through the majority of tracks only really slowing it down on the more poppy “It’s Easy”. The best song on here is probably “This Is How It Ends” with its singalong chorus. They do chuck in a dodgy cover version at the end though – ELO’s “Mister Blue Sky”. This gives me nightmares about the time I lived in Acton and my flatmate used to play the original version to death. He also did the same with “All Rise” by Blue. Thankfully those days are gone. I’m not sure there are many people out there who still like this band and they could be the most unfashionable band on the planet right now but if you still have time for their early material then I think you will probably quite like this album.Â