BTP 2024
All hands on deck and land ahoy! British seafaring hooligans stew revolution to rule the waves.
We Are People
Back in 2018, this ensemble’s earth-shattering EP "Leviathan!" signaled their intense, Ahab-like obsessiveness with taking sea shanties ashore for a bout of sonic debauchery, and its follow-up “Kick The Curb” showed the band battle a blasted lurgy with a bevy, or bevvy, of mostly traditional tunes, but two years down the line the artwork of this album shouts volumes about their anarchist agenda into the audience’s faces. The quintet don’t dwell on punk propaganda, however, preferring instead to stream their existential angst and righteous anger into an array of statesmen-lambasting numbers that see arresting melodies complement such hard-hitting lyrics as “People of this country have had enough of experts” to create songs which pour milk of human kindness on the grist of post-Brexit mill. But, never allowing antagonizing rhetoric to sink their ship and their regional identity to get lost in global village, the Yorkshire crew render “We Are People” universally relatable – and infectious to boot.
These Albion inhabitants don’t reel the listener in with ancient dead-man-chest pieces, although there are quite a few reels and jigs deeper in this record, starting from the riff-driven dance “The Mystery Wedge” whose bipartite nature emphasizes political split of one’s personality; instead, this platter’s opening salvo is the heavy “Rule Britannia!” refrain of “England Bound” that’s more nefarious than seafaring in its attempt to reconcile patriotism and inner turmoil so typical for our present-day currents. As Benjamin Trott’s guitar and Laura Boston-Barber’s fiddle swirl to buttress Stuart Giddens’ voice in the rousing sway of “The Devil Mercury” whose backing vocals lure the audience into singing along, the defiant “Who’s The Fool Now?” – which builds on the momentum set in motion by “Martin’s Polka” segueing into it – shifts the guilt from the shoulders of giants, letting instrumental “Squeeze The Teabag” relocate the sentiment of “Shake Your Moneymaker” to English soil later on. Yet while the monumentally stormy “What Will You Do In The Morning” takes pity on the fellow underdog, “The Sun Of US” interprets a Tony Walsh poem in a wider social way to elevate class struggle to a massive, belligerent level, fueled by thunderous groove of Patrick Lester-Rourke’s bass and Dave Boston’s drums, whereas “I Am People” accumulates the album’s rage in a gypsy-pogo-styled anthem to ram the band’s message home.
Having added a layer of textual relevance to musical timelessness oozing out of proggy fog of “Mother Carey” and the inebriated swagger of “When Jones’ Ale Was New” – the record’s two overtly trad-rooted cuts – the ensemble should further their fifteen-year career beyond the pale and bank on their filibuster – in both pirate and lawmaking meanings of this word – sensibilities. “We Are People” charts their course to posterity in no uncertain terms.
*****
