If pushy Pop with biting lyrics, ragged Rock with sharp riffs and sackfulls of verve, or challenging almost Metal-Prog launch your barge, then ‘Albion’ has them in abundance.
I’m seriously torn here. I can’t pretend that I don’t wait with bated breath for every note that emanates from the various Ginger Wildheart camps (Wildhearts, Hey Hello!, Mutation, Ginger Wildheart Band, etc). In truth I do and the very fact that I’ve also got in my hands the fifteen track Pledge version of ‘Albion’ (and not the commercially available ten-tracker) and that I’ve already signed up for the next in a never ending Gingerfest of projects (g-a-s-s.co, a kind of modern online fan club kind of thing with three new tracks a month and exclusive demos from the archives, alongside a whole host of other goodies and insights), will tell you I’m not exactly a “casual” GW follower.
So why am I torn? Well truth be told, I’m ever so slightly beginning to worry that there may be an overload point ahead, for while none of the ten (or indeed fifteen) tracks that make up ‘Albion’ are anything less than joyous journeys into the complex, every shifting GW psyche, neither can I tell you that much of the material here stands out from the many, varied recent releases GW has invested his time in. The Poppy moments hit like Hey Hello!, the full on heavy parts like Mutation and the rest like the “solo” ‘100%/555%’ record (yes, I bought the vinyl and the CD). Now for a dyed in the wool fan this may be a mixed curse; given time I’ve really begun to dig much of what’s revealed here, yet in a fashion of already knowing where the killer time change will hit, the vocal harmonies will seduce, or when the growling in your face expulsions will melt their surrounds. It’s all a bit like everything is an old friend before I even got to the chance to know it; there are few, if any, surprises.
And there’s the rub. I do love this album and I will suggest, nay declare, that if pushy Pop with biting lyrics (‘Body Parts’ and the almost Sophie Ellis Bextor meets Blondie of ‘Grow A Pair’), ragged Rock with sharp riffs and sackfulls of verve (‘Drive’ and ‘Creepers’), or challenging almost Metal-Prog (‘Albion’), launch your barge, then ‘Albion’ has them in abundance; just maybe not quite with the impact I’d hoped (expected? Maybe that’s my problem...?) for.
Steven Reid