Labels: In The Red
Review by: Alex Deller
For quite a while I was obsessed with Watery Love’s debut single. It got to the point where anyone entering my living room would be subjected to it. Even, and much to her chagrin, my non punx-loving partner who prefers to spend her time in the living room without having to listen to ‘I’m A Skull’ on repeat for 45 straight minutes. Time and again I would cackle wildly as the record played and people looked at me like I was a tremendous fucking idiot. Somehow, though, I didn’t hear anything the band did after that. But now in my ears and in my face is this LP on the estimable In The Red Records. Initially, I have to say, I found it a bit of a disappointment. There’s nothing to really match the blown-out idiocy of that first 7″, and the updated version of ‘I’m A Skull’ is just a waste of everyone’s time. But there’s something about the album that kept luring me back. A compelling monomania, where strung-out Stooges riffs are repeated until they’re meaningless and some guy hectors you with horrible admonishments as to why his life, and in turn yours, are such laughable failures. I think its crowning triumph is closing track ‘Face The Door’, with its bilious, bellowing refrain of “unlike you dickheads, I welcome death!” This is not only the first song I’ve heard in quite some time to use the word ‘dickhead’ but is also somehow uplifting in its own bizarre and challenging way. Now, can you guess what I’ll be forcing you to listen to if you come round my house in the next month or so?