The Beat Surrender

The Ordinary Boys find themselves in something of a strange position on this their second release. The first album was released in a blaze of glory with everybody wanting to champion the bands obvious love of The Jam, but as with all types of press in Britain we are happy to build people up…..but god we love to knock them down don’t we.

So come the release of Brassbound and they find themselves inhabiting a slightly different musical world to the one that embraced Over The Counter Culture. It’s a world that is slightly less forgiving of a band being derivative in it’s influences and sound, much of the press has been quick to dismiss The Ordinary Boys as one trick ponies, a band that have chanced it somewhat, gaining a decent following on the back of the gap left by the band that influenced them.

To a certain extent some of this may be true, I for one would love to have seen The Jam live, to have been around when a young fresh faced and snotty kid called Paul Weller burst onto the scene. So yes I do see a little bit of The Jam in The Ordinary Boys and it is as near as I’m gonna get to seeing a band with a similar style live now. That on it’s own though wouldn’t be enough for me to continue to see value in what they do and I’m gonna nail my colours to the mast at this point and tell you that unlike others in the press I’m not that fickle, if a bands beliefs and reasons for making music don’t change then my loyalty towards them isn’t going to either.

I probably need to explain that one a little more with an example I guess.

A band like Oasis for me haven’t evolved, they’ve really stood still while others around them have moved on musically. This in itself wouldn’t be a problem, if it isn’t broke don’t fix it etc are all fair comments. The one thing that Oasis seem to have lost for me though is the heart, the desire and the sole reason for making music in the first place. When they first arrived on the British music scene they sounded like their influences in everything they did and that wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t a problem because they had passion in what they did; they believed in what they did and because of those two things, the music transcended any accusations of it being too heavily influenced by the past.

The Ordinary Boys I don’t think are guilty of that. When I listen to tracks like Life Will Be the Death of Me which in truth has a similar riff to I Fought the Law, I don’t focus on that because the one thing that drives the track is the passion that you can hear in it. You listen to the chugging guitar riffs and the piano on the title track, they along with Preston’s vocals are imbued with a real sense of belief, they don’t sound stale and tired, they sound strident and confident. That is why I’m still happy to praise them here despite the obvious influences. If a band gets pleasure from making the music then you as a listener are all the more likely to get pleasure from listening to it.

Continue