There can’t be many bands that have supported Foo Fighters at a big old outdoor gig in Manchester even before their first album comes out, but Loose Articles have achieved this already.
They first appeared on my radar when they played a glorious set at an all-dayer in Liverpool towards the end of last year, after which I put their ‘Sinead Loves Bitcoin’ single (sadly not here) in my top 10 songs of the year, so I’m very intrigued and excited to see what has followed that.
In the interests of full disclosure, any album that is released in a special ‘Everton’ themed CD edition, is already going to be firmly in the good books.
Luckily, this is just one of the many things that this resplendent debut album has got going for it.
‘Mr Manager’ , you should already know, a tale of the hollowness of the humdrum, just how rubbish the 9-5 is, with shades of The Lovely Eggs (who they recently also supported) and Panic Shack, and shouts of ‘Blokecore’ on recent single ‘Are You A Welder’ summon up the spirit of Riot Grrrl and fellow shouters Bis from back in the 90’s.
‘Unpaid Intern’ has an almost Latin feel to it, all whistles, funk and cowbells.
There is a feeling running through the record that you wouldn’t want to get on their wrong side, but they sound like they’re enjoying themselves too much to get properly angry.
‘I’d Rather Have A Beer’ is another recent single, imploring you to raise a glass to ‘all the man-slags’ before a Madness stomp esque fill.
‘Pinball John‘ sees them properly hit their stride, it’s brooding with a catchy riff running through the heart of it like the writing on a bar of rock.
The closing tracks ‘It’s Art‘ and ‘Guitars, Cars, Knickers and Bras‘ work as a couplet, see them getting serious, raging against the misogynist attitudes that they will have unfortunately come across being a band, and as a fervent gig goer unfortunately it’s a sentiment that I overhear all too often.
“It’s not my fellas guitar, it’s mine it’s mine! It’s mine it’s my funky guitar”
It shouldn’t have to be written, but they’ve done it in a way that should send the message to these halfwits.
If there’s a criticism of the record, it feels like there’s room for more, it feels a bit on the short side, but this serves as a reason to just stick it on again.
