Singles

Gallows feat. Lethal Bizzle - Staring At The Rude Bois

Tom Blackburn 12/11/2007

Rating: 2/5

Gallows, it would seem, are quite a big deal at the moment. Picked up by Warner and with a frontman sitting proudly atop the NME's not-at-all-worthless Cool List - 17 places above Brandon Flowers' moustache, incredibly - so vast quantities of Babycham were no doubt quaffed by the suits responsible for this union between the Watford band and Conor McNicholas' pet grime merchant, Lethal Bizzle.

But such self-satisfaction would be completely undeserved. Although their take (sorry, '2007 update') on The Ruts' original has become a live favourite, on record it's totally pointless. The normally captivating Frank Carter barks half-heartedly over a bog-standard replica of the original punk standard. Bizzle's awkward MCing, meanwhile, is similarly underwhelming, far from the intensity of 'Forward Riddim' or his earlier work with More Fire Crew.

Longtime Gallows fans could be forgiven for finding all this hard to swallow. 'Staring at the Rude Bois' sounds like a worrying retreat from the unflinching brutality of Orchestra of Wolves and smacks of major label malaise. It might fit in neatly with XFM's automated daytime playlist but from concept to execution, it's about as punk rock as Chris de Burgh. Very poor.

To Be Released 19th November 2007