Labels: Bombed Out Records – Dead Broke Rekerds – Drunken Sailor – Eager Beaver – just say no to government music – Rad Girlfriend
Review by: MH
Stay Clean Jolene have a fairly hefty pedigree with band members having history in The Great St. Louis and The Leif Ericsson and they also put out a really solid 7inch last year. A quick look at the number of labels who have got together to release this gives a good idea as to the quality of this one. This debut full length is ten blasts of classic UK punk rock that flies past in about 25 minutes with only one song scraping past 3 minutes. “Concrete Block” is an apt title for the opener – it’s gritty and gutsy, no-nonsense punk rock and has a shouty line of “Who are you, where are you now?”. I raved about the song “Record” when I reviewed the 7inch and I stand by what I wrote last time – it’s an absolute barnstormer. That said, this is a really solid set of songs. “Easy Target”, towards the end of the record, has Leatherface written all over it and in the hopeful, wistful lines of the chorus John Dagger sounds very reminiscent of Frankie Stubbs. Great song. I have no complaints here apart from maybe the fact that all three of the tracks from the 7inch appear again here but then again they are great songs so why not? I’m probably stating the obvious but if you like any of their former bands or the likes of The Dauntless Elite and Leatherface then you’ll be wanting to hear this asap. Being out of the country for the past year, I’ve missed this kind of music. Just what I needed.