Demos

True Beat - Words Of Wisdom

Owain Paciuszko 19/03/2009

Rating: 3/5

Ska can sometimes fall onto the easy beats and tricks that are familiar of many acts over the years ranging from Madness through to Reel Big Fish. There's a certain comfortable sense of deja vu with this record's opener Bully Boy, but as the song develops the music starts taking a number of pleasing changes into different directions a la The Specials and Thomas Tattersall crafts some insightful lyrics and, in one inspired Pythonesque moment dons a squeaky voice to play a woman.

Payday is a rather typical workman skank bemoaning the small wages acquired and frittered away. 28 Percent is a laidback track that brings back memories of Our House, Tattersall's vocal is somewhere between Suggs and Mick Jones. Final track 1984 is a lively track but has some really distracting off-beat kick drum on the left channel; it also loses momentum come the end, not as full of ideas as earlier tracks but still, like everything here, pretty decent.