Critical Reaction

I've messed up a bit, posting the review of my most recent Gulliver's review first: it's not only the best of the records, but I think it's the best written review. So now you have a long tunnel into a drab past to look forward to, as the archives are raided. Yay.

Tedious explanatory note: Ronan is the editor of Nightshift, if you didn't know.

THE GULLIVERS - CHEMICALS (demo)

Last time we came across The Gullivers on record we surprised ourselves by discerning a little bit of blur in the midst of the punk rabble. Either we hit on something, or The Gullivers have been adapting their sound to reflect what we say in our reviews (don’t do it kids: we reviewers are all 40 year old, washed up alcoholic failed rockers living in Ronan’s basement and we know nothing. It was on the internet so it must be true). Well, we’ll give The Gullivers the benefit of the doubt and assume they have the good sense to ignore every word we say, and conclude that they’re just moving in a more pop direction at the moment. Certainly the three tracks on this EP take a chimpish jaunt through the new wave music hall that housed the best Britpop, all bouncy baselines and chirpy chappy vocals. “Black & White” could well be some deformed sibling of Supergrass’ “Alright”, reared for years in some dark pub back room, fed on driptrays and pork scratchings. It’s ugly, disjointed and gallons of fun.

“Dilemma” does the Lambeth walk even further down the geezer trail, sounding like a slightly punch-drunk Madness, the “sign on the dotted line” refrain recalling the patriarchal advice on their NHS satire “Mrs Hutchinson”. Again we’re reminded of blur, albeit their very earliest fumblings, such as “Come Together” or “Day Upon Day”. In short, there’s something wonderfully unpretentious about The Gullivers, and we can’t help but warm to their ramshackle refrains. Also nice to see they’ve finally put the last of their Arctic Monkeys/Babyshambles influences to bed, and are making much more interesting music for it.

It’s a pity that the messy “Needless To Say” has to finish the CD. Like an old man groping for his glasses after a nap, this sounds like a song bumbling about in search of a melody. For the first time on the demo the vocals stop sounding refreshingly unaffected and honest, and just sound atonal and lazy. Like Michael Stipe, it would seem that Mark Byrne sounds more assured the lower in the mix he is, and somehow the spell gets broken when the vocals take centre stage; he could also do with sticking to the shorter phrases of “Dilemma”, which allow his yelps to flit in and out without having to tackle tuning issues.

So, there’s still some work to be done, but The Gullivers keep knocking out demos at a respectable velocity, and each one is definitely better than the last, so here’s to them: hey, if they keep improving at this rate, they’ll be the best band in the history of music by 2027. Go see them now and you’ll have the best “Saw them before they were famous” story ever!