Well, I suppose we were due a stinker. After a parade of thoroughbreds of the calibre of Spring Offensive, Borderville, Les Clochards and Stornoway, this knock-kneed broken-winded old dobbin comes staggering, wheezing and dumping out of the paddock. I should note, in fairness, that both Mark Radcliffe and the NME love them, which suggests only that there are another two candidates for the cultural knacker’s yard.
The question that kept coming into my mind during this, the latest Anydays EP, was “why is anyone still playing this stuff?” Why would anyone waste precious time and money writing, rehearsing and performing a pointless rip-off of Buddy Holly, as on the opening title track? What would possess a rational human being to believe that we need a re-tread of that innovative brand of pub rock pioneered by the likes of Status Quo (Time to Get Up)? Who needs to hear yet another song that sounds exactly like Oasis- especially when we have the real thing to provide that need if it still exists (Turn Your Radio On)? Am I writing too many bolshie rhetorical questions? Are you kidding?
Probably the only song vaguely worth hearing on this EP is the genteel, spiky stupid-rock of ‘Psycho Baby’, although that is basically a thinly-disguised cover of ‘Louie Louie’ (I never get tired of hearing the latter for some reason). But on the whole this record makes me angry, bored and depressed, especially if just about the only independent music paper left standing and a once-important national DJ think this music is worthwhile. If The Anydays are the future of rock, then let’s dig up Cab Calloway and Glenn Miller, because rock will be dead in a year.